SAILING/ MAKING WAVES:As we begin our Cape Town stop-over we on board Groupama remind ourselves that we could be so much worse off

THIS HAS been brutal.

After all this time at sea we have only just finished Leg One. We arrived in Cape Town at 8.46pm (irish-time) last night in a time of 24 days, four hours, 28 minutes and 31 seconds.

Third place is ours, as is last place in this leg, depending on which way you want to look at it. We have paid the price for that decision off the coast of Morocco three weeks ago to let the others go offshore as we searched off the West African coast for the trade winds.

Chris Nicholson and the guys on Camper wavered on that decision also, but, as the leg turned out, they headed west and secured second place over the weekend, thanks in large part to Puma’s dismasting after Telefonica had pulled ahead off Brazil. Our penalty was to eventually become cut off from the final approach to Cape Town by a ridge of high-pressure that left us completely becalmed.

And very frustrated.

Even though it’s been a long haul, Franck (Cammas, skipper of Groupama) has been very good at maintaining morale. He makes regular visits on deck and takes turns at steering or trimming; having a skipper that plays the part of crew when needed is a core strength of our campaign.

Yet, we all know that morale on board has taken a battering, principally on two fronts. First is the sporting side of what we’re doing out here. Traditionally, the first-leg winner emerges overall victor by the end of the race though, ultimately, in this edition of the race, tradition doesn’t mean so much as the boats are well matched.

But knowing we have a fast boat and crew doesn’t alter how we feel – we entered to win and last place doesn’t cut it.

The other is knowing that instead of having a full week off with family in Cape Town, we’ll be lucky to get three days’ holiday by the time we finish our debriefing. We’re now four days behind Telefonica.

We’ve pretty much exhausted our supply of funny stories and jokes, but, thankfully, Phil Harmer’s wife Charlotte has been emailing him fresh material almost daily so we’re able to keep the craic going on board.

But by arriving later, we’re potentially being put on the back foot.

This race schedule has pared the stop-overs down to the bare minimum time needed to haul-out the boats. Our already small fleet could be reduced further if the three boats coming by ship get delayed for the next restart that is now barely 10 days away.

I’m certainly not jealous of the Puma boys losing their rig, but I definitely envy their trip to Tristan da Cunha.

Under a non-racing scenario, it would be amazing to visit that tiny community that is only accessible by sea once or twice a year on a boat from Cape Town or St Helena. They’ll have some amazing stories to tell.

But our boat is in great shape and only some routine optimisations are needed. We could easily sail the in-port race tomorrow if we needed to.

Physically, however, a bit more work is needed. This leg has been mostly all reaching – sailing with the wind coming from 90 degrees to the boat’s heading – and this hasn’t involved the usual intensity of sail changes that are massively demanding and useful for staying fit.

Instead, the effort has been more intellectual, steering and trimming rather than lugging heavy wet sails around the boat.

We’ll be in okay shape in Cape Town, but a couple of climbs up Table Mountain or a few jogs around Signal Hill and Lion’s Head are definitely needed.

We aren’t quite a bunch of cabbage patch dolls yet, but the loss of muscle tone has already started and atrophy will plague us for the rest of the race as the freeze-dried diet and irregular fitness routine becomes the norm.

We were hardly in the Roaring Forties long enough to see a real sleigh ride so none of the fleet even shaded the world 24-hour monohull record this leg.

Plenty of opportunities later on, next year as we start to head southwards again.

But we’ve had plenty of wildlife for added company over the last few days including several whales while the last albatross to escort us through these deep ocean latitudes glided off on Monday.

So now we begin our Cape Town stop-over, reminding ourselves that we could be so much worse off.

The option off the Moroccan coast cost us dearly and while it’s made us last, it’s still fantastic that we have a third and the important thing now is to throw out the bad and keep the good.

And the boat is in one piece.