Volvo Ocean Race Log: We’re ahead but there’s still lots of work to do

For a while, it looked like we were never going to get away from Brazil. Stuck at the starting line with no wind, leg six of the Volvo Ocean Race to Newport Rhode Island was worse than slow motion and far from the dramatic images of boats crashing through mountainous seas.

But that’s yacht racing and principal race officer Bill O’Hara made the right call in cancelling the inshore legs around the buoys that we usually sail at each restart – there was just no way we’d be going anywhere fast.

Even with that, it wasn't the most glamorous start for us on Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing as Iker Martínez and the Mapfre crew sailed us out past the starting-line so we were unable to cross on the gun.

Instead, it took us 20 minutes to get back around and cross the line correctly and even then we weren’t too far behind.

But just a few days later, all six boats have hooked into a fresher breeze as a weather front pushes us northwards in ideal racing conditions. We managed to stay in touch with the fleet but Charlie Enright’s Alvimedica held us back in some sort of match-race attempt for a day-and-a-half, which was pretty annoying as we were trying to work our way to the front. These boats are one-design, so speed differences are minuscule and getting a passing-lane was a challenge.

We eventually shook them off and officially we’re listed as first in the fleet, though it really is meaningless, as I’ve mentioned before; in a leg of 5,000 nautical miles, a one- or two-mile lead leaves little margin for error.

Nevertheless, while we’re not making any assumptions, we’re in a good place overall.

Podium result

But we won the last leg, our second in the race so far and we’ve maintained our game plan of always taking a podium result. It’s stood us well as we have a clear seven-point overall lead in the race.

In the section of the leg from Cape Horn to the finishing-line, we reckon we only got about four hours’ sleep each day as the conditions were boat-breaking at times and the pressure was on to hold our lead.

Winning the leg was a huge deal for us and we believe it was deserved. We got the win and left the boat in Itajaí in good condition considering the pounding it took. Before jumping on a plane home, we had a celebratory night out.

Two days later, I was sitting in my back garden in west Cork, taking in the fresh spring weather under blue skies with my family and nothing to do with the sea for five days apart from some paddle-boarding.

We’ll have plenty of tropical conditions on this leg too as we make our way northwards towards Recife and later passing the Caribbean.

But unlike the last race into Miami, our more northerly destination is going to open up some tactical challenges in the next week.

Traditionally when the race heads to a stop-over in Florida, the routing is usually straight up close to the Caribbean Islands. The main tactical option apart from where to cross the Doldrums is whether to dive inshore in search of some coastal wind or stay offshore for more reliable wind.

Shake up the fleet

In this race, the weather front pushing us northwards at a fast pace will eventually overtake us before we reach Recife and the most north-east corner of Brazil. Interpreting the conditions behind the front will be the first opportunity to shake up the fleet that right now is spread out across seven miles.

Closest to us is Sam Davies’ Team SCA, who are holding their own so far in this leg, which is great to see as the all-female team have tended to slip to the back of the pack in the previous legs.

They have said that the race is ours to lose but there’s no way we can allow any sense of complacency on our part to creep in. We have this 5,000-mile leg to go, plus a full transatlantic to Lisbon in May and then two shorter legs, so there’s 40 per cent of the points left in the event.

In the Volvo Ocean Race, you can as easily have a shocker of a leg as you can gear failure.

Tables turned

And it was exactly at this point in the last race that the tables turned for Iker Martínez on

Telefonica

, who had been dominating until then.

Even though Franck Cammas on Groupama was dismasted after rounding Cape Horn in the lead, their setback was only temporary and the French team's momentum only increased as the Spaniards lost their mojo.

We won’t take anything for granted, not even a seven-point overall lead. This race is in level one-design boats and fully capable of going right down to the wire at the end of June.

And we fully intend being there and first home to Gothenburg.