Volvo OR - From the Boats - Leg 3, Day 5 - 30+kts in the Southern Ocean
by OBRs and Others 15 Dec 2017 02:50 PST
15 December 2017
Leg 3, Cape Town to Melbourne, day 6, Tom Clout catching the next wave on board Sun Hung Kai / Scallywag © Konrad Frost / Volvo Ocean Race
It's been a wild night and day in the Southern Ocean as the fleet skirt the Ice Fence in the strongest breeze of the race so far.
Reports from the boats vary - wind speeds up to 56kts. Top boat speed is 38kts!! Sustained averages of over 30kts. That's AC50 territory.
More moments overnight from Turn the Tide on Plastic:
So today had a very different feel about it. We had some good moments and some hideous moments.
We started this morning seeing our buddies again. It was just like Leg 1 in the Gibraltar Straits and just like nearly the whole of leg 2. We were on a collision course with Scallywag. We passed ahead but it was close and we all cheered. As each of us were surfing waves at 25knots then slowing down as the breeze dropped or we came off the wave and then picked another one.
The boats were both very inconsistent with their speeds to be able to call a clear cross confidently. It was nice to see our buddies again and David and I exchanged emails.
Then we had a bad patch this evening. As we consistently try and move East the time zones are moving quite quickly and the dark catches up with us earlier each day. The breeze was up and down but it was the waves that were no longer visible catching you by surprise that was the problem. You would suddenly start sending it down big mountains with the waves driving the boat more than you at the helm. It was hard work and we had a couple of wipe outs as a result. It made for very unsettled driving and right now the whole team is tired.
Once again we are in clear skies full of stars. We are not being sucked into to the beauty and rarity of seeing clear skies down here as we had our strongest puffs in excess of 40 knots last night under similar skies. The temperature is dropping as to be expected but thankfully the barometer that plummeted to 993 has now started to rise once more.
Another damp and chilly day in the Southern Ocean.
Dee and Team TTTOP
Report from OBR Jeremie Lecaudy on Turn the Tide on Plastic:
Today we finally saw what the Southern Ocean looks like. It looks good.
Albatross are constantly flying by the boat, they surf the top of the highest waves and come close to the front sails to rotate around the boat, in search of their next breakfast.
The mornings are cold and the sailors look tired from the busy night manoeuvring on deck. Short naps, intense sailing, rough conditions, trying to stay dry, the morning sun shines on their faces and they start smiling again.
Sometimes a light nausea takes your motivation away, everything becomes difficult, getting your breakfast takes half an hour, preparing to get out another one, and you're finally out, clipped on, wet, water housing in one hand, holding on to the boat with the other.
The happiness of the crew and the excitement of working in such an extraordinary environment takes it all, everyone focuses on his work and the boat becomes the best playground for all those who fought hard to be here.
A couple of hours later the crew is behind the media station, excited to see what came out of your camera, they laugh at themselves, appreciate the shots and feel for the others going up on watch.
Before dawn, another Volvo 65 passes by, the only kind of yacht around us. Scallywag crosses our path by 100 metres upwind of us. Dee gets excited and motivates me for the perfect opportunity to try a drone flight in gusts up to thirty knots. The wind is never really a problem in drone flying, the real problem lays in the landing. For the first time I experience the deck being so wet that we have to put it in a bag to go from the hatch to the back where it's safer to fly. The remote control quickly gets wet, the screen starts vibrating for no reason, alerts pop up every two seconds, error messages and bips are starting to stress you out, but you see an image that you haven't seen before, so you keep flying until you get what you came for.
Later at night, while editing your stories of the day, you hear from the past and the Southern Ocean, about the last editions of the Volvo, about the Whitbread, a long time ago, when Nico Lunven's father used to sail, at the exact same date, at the same place, in the same conditions.
Report from Bouwe Bekking onboard Team Brunel:
It is wet and wild, typing nearly impossible and everything is soaking wet. Have to watch out that this computer stays in one piece, it is our nav computer. The OBR’s one is a bit less fortunate.
Crew and boat are doing well, we have been sailing conservatively as this low pressure system is massive. We can't afford to break anything, first of all it is bloody long way to Aussie and then outside assistance will be costing penalty points, can imagine they will big as this is a double point leg.
Gybing is not fun at all, today did a gybe in 45 knots, we luckily had a huge surf and the main can through nicely. You are always worried about the battens and the mainsail track in these kind of conditions.
Max wind puff was 62 knots, good we had the gennaker furled just before that. Now riding literally the storm out.
Kyle's ankle is better, some people are looking tired, but all well.
cheers,
Bouwe
From onboard Vestas 11th Hour Racing:
Update 1145UTC: We are sending it down mountainous waves. Not an exaggeration. They look like something out of another world.
Sustained wind speed is currently at 41 knots. The boat is in one piece and the team seems very much in control. Very wet above and below. You can see your breath in the cabin and the sailors on deck are dancing variations of the Macarena and Saturday Night Fever to stay warm. The team is going for miles. Definitely not the most conservative mode we've run all day.
Albatross and other seabirds circle around the boat effortlessly.
When Charlie came down after his watch he sat on the engine box and slumped in exhaustion, then made a comment to TJ about not being able to make the boat go slower than 30 knots for an uncomfortably long period of time.
"When it's really windy like this maneuvers are really expensive," says Charlie. "When you know it's the right thing to do, but the right thing to do takes two hours and 100% of everybody's effort, sometimes it's hard to reach that conclusion. Lucky for us we bit the bullet and have stayed in touch with the group."
According to Sifi, our highest recorded gust has been 50 knots and our top recorded boat speed has been 38 knots. I didn't know they could go faster than 33.
That's all for now.
Sam
From onboard MAPFRE this morning:
Hi all,
We are already sailing very close to the ice limit, about 20 nm north of it, so keeping an eye on it. Weather is not too bad. Sea water temperature is dropping and we can see now is just under 7 degrees. It feels cold but to be honest we keep ourselves busy enough to go through the watches ok.
As you all can probably see, we are fighting hard against the elements and Dongfeng especially, we’ve had a good night and we have a good distance to Vestas and AkzoNobel and the rest so we are very happy how the things are going for us.
Tonight is going to be hard again, proper wind downwind so I hope we can pass it with no problems.
So much work to do still though, uncountable gybes on the ice limit exclusion zone will kill the crews in all boats so we will really need to give our best to keep on the top of the race. Let’s see how it goes and who is the first one doing less gybes - we will found out shortly.
For the rest, all going ok, crew is happy and pushing hard.
Although we are enjoying the conditions I think everyone is looking forward to a wind drop!
Have a good day on shore and keep watching.
Xabi
Latest news from onboard Dongfeng Race Team:
Tough Start and tough days to come
Since the start this leg is tough.
The start was a classic one from Cape Town sailing upwind to Cape point, good job on playing the shift help us to come back after a big loss in the shadow of Table mountain and then again start a new red boat game. Match racing with our ex two boat testing partner.
But since 24 hours we changed mode to manage probably the strongest wind of this leg.
A big low pressure with a boat speed record for this boat, 33 knots in a gust of 56 knots made by magic STU [Bannatyne]. First time I saw a bit of stress in this man.
An average speed of 29 knots for a few minutes. A lot for this boat.
So a very tough night and since this morning the sea state is terrible and killed our small rest.
The programme for the next days is a bit better but not very exciting. 4 days of jibing along the ice limit. I am expecting one of the toughest moments of this race.
This is really the problem of this ice limit, it does kill strategy. The big advantage is that we are not so cold. Sailors start to put gloves on but temperature is around 9deg for the water and the air.
Charles
From onboard Turn the Tide on Plastic this morning:
That moment where your whole world stops and your heart is in your mouth. The alarm sounds at the chart table, with bright red letters displaying SART AIS MOB Alarm.
I jumped up from the chart table and screamed from the hatch to the back of the boat. Do you have everyone, I have a MOB Alarm.
A quick check of everyone reassured me that this was a false alarm. I turned off all the noise and flashing distraction from the navigation instruments and we located the beacon.
It was in a lifejacket that was being worn and still on deck. With gusts of 40 knots and darkness of nighttime this was not something I wanted to have happen onboard.
Now it is daylight and we still have gusts and big waves but there is something about the light making it not feel as bad.
Cheers
Dee and Team TTTOP