Volvo Ocean Race Log: As Cape Town beckons, the fleet hits the doldrums

This is like playing a game of chess except the board measures 3,000 miles wide and 5,000 miles long.

We're on Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing's Azzam at the front of the Volvo Ocean Race fleet since we started leg one in Alicante 18 days ago but even after 60 per cent of this 6,500 mile opening stage, all seven boats are still tightly bunched.

Now it looks like we’re going to be a few days late getting into Cape Town but it can’t be helped, the light airs in the Mediterranean continued out into the Atlantic where the normally reliable trade winds abandoned us and the slog continued.

The lead changed regularly and though we’ve been more or less continuously at the front, this could change easily.

It wasn’t until we drew level with the Cape Verde Island off West Africa that we started to see reliable breeze but that was short-lived as we reached the Doldrums north of the equator last week where we were once again into the light stuff.

No surprises there.

The slow pace on board was followed up with a fun distraction of a visit from King Neptune at the equator who came to receive homage from our on- board reporter Matt Knighton, the only one of our team never to have crossed before.

Although a team-member, he isn’t allowed participate in racing the boat and his duties are strictly limited to preparing food and handling the media duties from cameras to interviews and regular reports from on board.

But even with the mandatory ceremonial duties, we picked our crossing point well and held the lead but with Bouwe Bekking’s Team Brunel close behind and just last night they pulled ahead of us after taking 26 miles out of our lead in just four hours.

Chess game

But this is where the chess game comes into it’s own as we sail southwards and even away from Cape Town towards the coast of Brazil in search of wind.

We’re actually closer to the port of Itajai where we’ll be stopping off after leg five next Spring which seems like a long time away.

But the turn eastwards for the final approach to Cape Town simply isn’t possible yet as the St Helena high-pressure system is blocking the shortest route with light winds.

The conditions are balmy but we’d rather have breeze and right now all the boats are hoping to reach the fresher conditions within the next two days.

Last weekend, our tactical options seemed plentiful but have narrowed and it looks like everyone is getting set-up to turn more or less at the same point.

Gaining on us

The bad news for us is that the boats at the back are carrying more wind and are gaining on us.

That could mean a park-up or even a leg restart which, after three weeks would be pretty brutal especially as the last phase into Cape Town could be very fast with no overtaking opportunities.

Overall, that means the level of intensity on board is extreme, even more so than previous editions of this race.

The key difference is that we’re now racing one-designs – all boats have matching hulls and sails – so the performance difference comes down to how well the crews sail and manage the tactical options.

But we also have fewer crew as the new boats are 65-feet long, slightly smaller than the previous generation of 70-footers that were used for three editions of the race.

Added pressure

To minimise costs this year, crew numbers have dropped from 11 to eight, which has put added pressure on our watch systems.

In general, we'd probably all be together on deck for perhaps two hours a day but the smaller crew numbers means our skipper Ian Walker and navigator Simon Sci Fi Fisher have also to take turns helping out on deck.

In previous races, they’d spend most of their time below deck absorbing all the weather data and routing options but this is now a luxury that only the girls on Team SCA can afford with the bigger crew complement.

All in all, this race is like no other that I’ve sailed and while it’s great that the new boats are delivering the close racing we hoped for, we’re going to be exhausted by the time we reach the Tavern of the Seas sometime next week.

Familiar

In the meantime, while our team looks and sounds familiar as the last race, with the same skipper and many of the same faces on the crew, since we put the first night behind us we’ve also left behind the nightmare that was the first leg of three years ago.

Then, without even spending a single full night at sea, our mast snapped in the breezy conditions approaching the Straits of Gibraltar.

Knocked-out of the race and without even reaching open ocean.

That left us on the back foot as we had to have the boat delivered to Cape Town with a new rig. And that was only the start of the problems that we faced along with every other team in the race that saw the end of the 70-footers and the arrival of the Volvo 65’s.

For sure, these boats are stronger and more reliable. And as one-designs, we can expect the others to be just as competitive as there are great sailors on every other team.

We won’t be getting this race all our own way and as everyone gets the hang of the new boats, everyone is going to feature at some stage or another over the coming nine months.

It is and it’s going to stay, intense.