Team SCA brings up the rear

The crew comment on leg three of the Volvo Ocean Race

Team SCA arrived to a warm and colourful welcome including fireworks, Chinese dragons, orchid garlands and traditional costumes into Sanya. The all-female team crossed the finish line of leg three just before 1300 UTC, to take last place on leg three from Abu Dhabi in 24 days 2 hours 41 minutes and 45 seconds.

Skipper Sam Davies commented:  “Well, in my eyes, I have really seen us develop as a team and everyone together has contributed to some really good improvements in various areas. We were pleased to be able to stick in sight of the other boats for longer than ever before and feel that, thanks to this contact, with the fleet we have managed to improve our boat speed in some modes of sail.

“This leg was also a leg of discovery for the whole crew as none of us has ever sailed in these waters. As we had heard all the horror stories about the Malacca Straits and Vietnam coast, we were well prepared to handle all the challenges thrown at us and never compromised the performance. We enjoyed sailing through the tricky areas, with tides, obstacles and transitions. It was tough from Sumatra onwards for us as our timing left us in lighter winds than the others and we saw them sail away a bit, but again, we never let this discourage us.

“I feel like as a team we are becoming stronger and this in turn is bringing out the best in each crew member. Despite the relative 'easy' conditions on this leg, it feels like everyone has given it more than 100%.”

Watch Captain Carolijn Brouwer added: “We know that we still need to improve, but we feel that even in this second half of the leg we have moved forward and we are confident that we can keep gaining on our performance in Leg Four. There is a sense of impatience to go out there again and see what we can do. Overall the feeling is good. We have managed to keep the margin smaller. All the fleet will finish within the same day, the same 24 hours. And for the first half, the first 12 days, we hung in there and always had a boat on AIS and we enjoyed that racing, we hold on to that and it is promising for us. We will finish within 20 hours of Dongfeng and that is different to the two previous legs. We have done better, things have improved. 


“But we made mistakes and there are a lot of lessons we have learned and we are looking forward to the finish and the break, but we are very keen and motivated to get out there again and keep pushing and learning.”

Crew Abby Ehler said:  “It was a really different leg. I wouldn’t say it was hard in terms of the physical side but it just had lots of things coming at all angles whether it was the shoreline, fishing boats and posts and nets, or obstacles in the water. It was challenging in many different ways for all of us, as we have never sailed in that part of the world, which certainly kept us on our toes.

“I have never been to China before and what an amazing welcome. We were blown away by the number of boats on the water when we finished and the number of people and the volume is incredible, so it has made it quite special."

Dee Caffari added: “From a team perspective, we are aiming to constantly improve leg by leg and we have definitely seen signs of improvement in the sailing and the team work and now we only want to build on that. So we know it is only going to get better, to sail within sight of the other guys for so long was really good and to keep hanging on to those miles and not let the gap lengthen too much towards the finish kept us going and now we want to make sure that we improve on our finishing place overall, preferably ahead!”

The Team SCA crew will take a few days break before returning to prepare for the start of Leg Four from Sanya to Auckland, New Zealand on Sunday, 8 February.