Volvo Ocean Race- Life onboard - Leg 2, December 9 + Video
by Sail-World on 10 Dec 2014
December 9, 2014. Leg 2 onboard MAPFRE. Iker Martinez and Xabi Fernandez resting and refuelling. Francisco Vignale/Mapfre/Volvo Ocean Race
The On Board Reporters on the six remaining boats in the Volvo Ocean Race report on Leg 2, December 9 - as they play follow the leader to the next waypoint before taking the more complicated course to the finish in Abu Dhabi
December 9, 2014 Stefan Coppers OBR, Team Brunel
'How many Legs have I won in the Volvo Ocean Race? I would say about eight? I’m not sure. I’d have to count again. But not enough however!' says Bouwe Bekking, laughing while he surfs his Brunel smoothly across the waves.
'High time we add another one to the list!'
Bekking, sailing his seventh race, which makes him the record holder, is pretty close in doing so. Team Brunel is still leading after last night and even expanded the miles it had on closest rivals Dongfeng Race Team and Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing.
The benefit of this is that the route leading to the notorious 'Strait of Hormuz' is to be sailed upwind and the pursuers have no choice but to follow the track of the leader.
To think that we almost lost Bekking to another sport.
'Did you know I’m a reasonably good skater?,' he says. 'A world-class sport in its own right. And who wouldn’t want to become the new Ard (Schenk) or Keesie (Verkerk)?
'But you know what? After one winter I saw my friend sailing faster. He improved big time after that season of training.
'And the coolest thing ever was to tell your friends you’d been sailing while they were skating. That was tough! Sailing is the most beautiful thing in the world!'
Four more days....
Maybe another bit of proof that he made the right choice back then.
December 9, 2014 Francisco Vignale OBR, MAPFRE
'1105 miles to go'
After several days in unstable and light winds, MAPFRE finally managed to catch stronger northeasterly winds from the 40º to 60º. At around 3:30 UTC the moon came out to starboard, lightening up the sails.
The squeaks of the winches aren’t that nice though - they won’t let you sleep. After several days without water on deck and in extreme heat, the lines really make an awful lot of noise against the winches and aren’t allowing us any proper sleep. Just living in the boat with such a noise is uncomfortable. We try to soak them every 30 minutes or so and we use earplugs. So is offshore sailing…
We are reaching towards the Strait of Hormuz, around 600 miles away. Our average speed is 12.5 knots and we are healing at 18 to 20º. All the stacking is to one side and no-one wanders around the boat. We go from the bunk to deck and back to the bunk.
We’re in a high maritime traffic area right now. Huge merchant ships cross the Channel of Suez on their route to Asia and China, where the freight industry is really big.
Sometimes we see them on the AIS and we keep our eyes wide open, always looking ahead…
Come on MAPFRE!!!!
December 9, 2014 Yann Riou OBR, Dongfeng Race Team
Lacking inspiration! Nothing happening…
It's hard to find something to talk about when nothing is happening!
Four days sailing on starboard tack (when the wind comes from the right hand side of Dongfeng), heeled over on our side, and unable to match the speed of the guys in front. It's not a disaster, but it's not super fun either.
Last night and again this morning, I asked the crew to summarise the day in one word. I’ll send that video later. Disappointing. Boring. Long. The prize goes to Thomas, with his 'hangry', a combo of angry and hungry, that we say in our Frenchie accents a bit in the same way onboard Dongfeng.
Well anyway, all is fine, but that doesn’t translate in to unbridled enthusiasm either. We need to remember this is our 21st day at sea. You can see it in the faces, the clothes and in our habits.
Hipsters of the sea
The faces are bearded. We are no longer interested in the food - it's certainly not gastronomy. We prefer just ‘fueling’.
We are certainly making our own fashion statement. Our working times are all over the place. We work day and night. In other words, we are developing the seagoing version of a daily urban routine.
That said, we’re not complaining. 21 days. 4, 5 or 6 to go? Certainly looking forward to shave, sleep a full night, tasting some good food, wearing some clean clothes. In other words, being normal!
December 9, 2014 Corinna Halloran OBR, Team SCA
If you’ve watched the plethora of readily available Volvo Ocean Race videos you’d most likely gather that out here it’s 100% carnage 100% of the time.
However, this can be a bit deceptive, as generally (especially in the last few days) for us it’s been far from carnage.
Yesterday our most hectic moment was when we ended up just on the outskirts of a massive rainstorm; from afar it looked as though we were in for it, but the reality was just a few raindrops.
This does not mean the mode on board is anything short of intense—far from it. 24 hours, around the clock, the team works to get the most out of the boat, every .01% of a knot.
However, there is one quote from all the videos that stands true, carnage or no carnage, and it explains why we are out here: 'It gets in your blood.'
There’s something about this race, the adrenaline, the sea, the sense of freedom, the concentration, and the intent. The race serves as a personal experience for both the sailors and the world watching. We’re all in this together.
Volvo Ocean Race sailors are the fire-persons of the sporting world—rather than running away from the raging ocean, blistering heat, gale force winds, and mind numbing Doldrums, these men and women run towards it!
Sometimes, they run wearing a GoPro, and you get to experience running towards the fire as well. You don’t see this happening with golf, football, nor basketball. Obviously these sports are challenging in their own rights, but you do not see Tiger Woods nor Lebron James camping out on the golf course nor basketball court!
As the years have passed, the boats developed into machines nearly as complex (or more) as a Formula 1 racecar. As the sport developed, the playing ground changed: the crews became more experienced, the productions more complex, and the race became more mentally (and physically) demanding.
As a result, the rest of the world begins to come closer, tune into the race more, and pay attention to these men and women risking their leg and limb.
This is a race about people—about husbands and wives, friends and teammates, brothers and sisters. This is a race about the world and the world watching. It’s an experience for us all, not just the individual sailors.
Together, we all share the excitement, the celebrations, and the frustrations.
Together, we let the race and the sea get under our skin and enter our blood.
Together, we run towards the raging ocean and the carnage.
Together, we sail around the world.
Together, we sail the Volvo Ocean Race.
December 9, 2014 Amory Ross OBR, Team Alvimedica
It is a good morning onboard Alvimedica. A week of committing to our westerly lane north has been firmly consolidated by the 1AM sched into a fourth place position, ahead of MAPFRE and SCA.
As the fleet compressed overnight we were able to squeeze out from under the Spaniards with a quicker angle towards the next waypoint and it was all smiles at first light.
Ever since leaving Vestas we’ve quietly gone about our business, trying to be less erratic, less reactionary and more confident in our game plan, and in this case it seems to have worked.
Maybe it’s that we felt we had less to lose, restarting from the back of the fleet, but it’s vindicating for sure—and assuming nothing radical is on the horizon—the prospect of holding on to the #4 will make the next week of sailing far more exciting. We’re a competitive group and it feels right to be in the mix; everyone’s anxious to prove our worth!
Otherwise, life sweats on. Nick and I were talking about how you can tell which ocean in the world you are by the sky, by the clouds and their color; the way the light hangs in the sky. It’s unique and distinct depending on where you are. Here the air is hazy and sandy, and the clouds are uniform—almost perfectly layered.
It’s a distinct collection of pastel pinks, like someone went crazy on peach sorbet. There is nothing intense about it—the sky a gentle fade that lacks any harsh lines of contrast. I should probably stop talking about clouds—they have generally been against us this race. But it is pretty. Maybe the heat is finally getting to me!
December 9, 2014 Matt Knighton OBR, Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing
Go to team website
When you’ve maxed out the trim and sail at or over 100% of your boat speed and are still bleeding miles each sked, the mood onboard can be a little ripe.
For the past 48 hours, every time we get a position report Brunel and Dongfeng have gained a little – they’ve got more wind at a more optimal angle.
We’re past rationalising our decision to split from them; their gamble towards the east simply paid out more. The good news: they’re only 30 nm ahead.
Driving 'Azzam' hard into building breeze at sunrise, Ian explained, 'It may not seem like it right now, but thirty miles can disappear quite quickly. There’s still 900 miles to go and 450 of that is upwind in light air so anything can happen.'
We know he’s not being purely optimistic, the light and shifty air of the Gulf is an advantage we’re keen to use when the leaders start slowing down.
Still, there were plenty of tense moments last night where the focus of the sailors was being put to the test. As the breeze built and we were forced to sail on the wind, the calm moonlight sailing of the past few nights gave way to the sound of the main sheet being eased and trimmed time and again.
With one man in the nav station running numbers, often the deck was short handed with only three guys up – each one with eyes focused on the wind direction while 'Azzam' heeled over to what felt like a near vertical incline in 15 knots.
'We’ll do our best to stay with them for now', Ian added; his motivation and optimism has been evident and affects us all. 'Once they hit the light air ahead we’ll come crashing in as the compression begins.'
December 8, 2014 Francisco Vignale OBR, MAPFRE
The Doldrums are hitting us hard again. Relentless, merciless. We’ve been waiting for the northeasterly wind for more than 10 hours, but we’ve seen none of it so far. We do get some shy gusts, but it’s not what we were looking for.
The skeds show that the fleet is getting away and that the boats behind us are getting closer every time. Iker teased and challenged us by saying we won’t look at the skeds again until the wind kicks in.
Anyway, we’ll try to make the most out of what we have, and an incredible moonlight gave us some comfort, up in the sky, orange at first, and then completely white. Most of the crew slept on deck - there’s no more spray, nor wind or rain. Just the moon and MAFPRE.
We haven’t seen any other boat for the last 12 days and sometimes the regatta doesn’t even feel like there is one any more. We really miss windier conditions.
Days stretch, it’s hot and there’s nothing more to do but wait for the wind to kick in and put all the weight at the bow.
For the surfers onboard, it’s also kind of hard to think of the perfect waves breaking on the Maldives, just there. It’s one of the best surf spots in the world.
December 8, 2014 Stefan Coppers OBR, Team Brunel
The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach
In Team Brunel’s cockpit is a small black box. The screen shows different sorts of information. Boat speed, wind direction, AND, the exact distance to the competitors, 5.8. 'That means that we are 5.8 nautical miles ahead of Dongfeng Race Team! YEAH,'says Gerd-Jan Poortman.
The distance to Dongfeng has already been the source of many bets for a few days onboard. 'For a packet of biscuits, we bet that in the next two hours we will sail 0.5nm away from Dongfeng.'
And so it began. Consequently, the Fruitella Candy Bars, the cookies and the chocolate mouses left the food bags.
Whether it’s a coincidence or not, the team has been in an excellent position. We’ve got to sail another 1,00nm though, closely followed by the Chinese.
Bouwe Bekking is beaming at the thought of a victory, but he warns: 'We will pass through the Strait of Hormuz just before arriving in Abu Dhabi. It’s a piece of water surrounded by high mountains. Do you already role the dice? It may be the most difficult part of this leg.'
On deck, the boys are in a happy mode. '5.8nm... I bet that it’ll be 7 at the end of the day,' laughs Pablo Arrarte. The chocolate biscuits distributed on deck make for an euphoric mood. 'We are on fire.'
Abu Dhabi is in sight. But let's hope that the bottom of the food bag still remains out of sight for now!
December 8, 2014 Amory Ross OBR, Team Alvimedica
It feels a bit like an intermission, a TV timeout—a break for commercials. If we could just hit pause to get up and stretch the legs, maybe we’d come back a little more excited. But for the time being it feels like we’re staring through the screen and going through the motions at half speed. With the winds unlikely to build in the remaining week(s), odds are it will stay that way—in a sort of slow motion. Frustrating, for a boat that’s designed to sail at 40 knots, to live for so long at 7.
Our directive has remained virtually unchanged since leaving Vestas: just get north. Fortunately SCA and Mapfre offer a measure of tactical distraction but the nuances are getting smaller and now that we’re [hopefully] clear of the doldrums the options shrink still. We have some leverage on Mapfre well to the east and there is an opportunity to gain a place there, but unless things change drastically in the Persian Gulf, the leaders are out of reach.
We’ve got plenty of food, no shortage of stories and soon enough we’ll get to a more interesting stretch of water with headlands, traffic, and scenery; that will help speed things up a little. For now we’re trying to stay patient and entertained, and trying to stay out of the sun. But the abundant downtime has Christmas, families, and a possible trip home for the holidays weighing heavy on our minds!
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