Volvo Ocean Race Leg 3 - Tense onboard Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing

by Matt Knighton on 26 Jan 2015 Volvo Ocean Race Leg 3 - Sailing in a straight line was never supposed to be as tense as this. We’ve been pointing at Sanya for almost a day now and fortunately, Alvimedica, MAPFRE, and Brunel far enough back to not be in AIS range anymore. The problem is they’re not in AIS range anymore.

The 6-hour skeds are now our only means of keeping track of our competitors. With the wind predicted to lighten ahead we had worried that Brunel and MAPFRE, both whom had tacked later towards the north, were in a good position to work around us.

Fortunately, our latest position report showed that they had sailed higher courses and are now slowly filing into a line behind us.

Ian and SiFi have been doing the math down below in the nav station. At this speed Brunel will need to sail 1 knot faster than us the rest of the way to Sanya to catch us. A second place in this leg would surely be a victory for us in the overall standings. Still, no one has flashed signs of optimism yet.

We just furled our headsail and Daryl jumped into the water with fins to clear our keel fin of debris. Sailing at 3 knots, he had just enough time to grab it, swim back up, and catch the transom as it sailed by. We had hooked a blue trash bag.

We’ll need every speed advantage we’ve got to defend our position and stay between Alvimedica and the finish line.

The wheels are starting to come off. We ran out of food bags today so no chocolate bars or sweets. More importantly, we’re down to our last roll of toilet paper. Parko and Neal just sawed a roll of paper towels in half to see us through.