VOR - I dreamt that Alvimedica overtook us and woke up crying

by Dongfeng Race Team on 21 Jan 2015 Volvo Ocean Race 2014-15 Leg 3 update from Dongfeng Race Team:

I dreamt that Alvimedica overtook us and woke up crying.' – Dongfeng Shore Crew member

We once wrote that if you couldn’t handle ecstatic highs and unfair lows than this sport is probably not for you. Well, we stand by it.

The beauty of a game like Tennis, football or even athletics is that it’s all over in a matter of hours. No more screaming at the TV, stressing over the score on the radio or cheering your favourite team on so loudly that even the neighbours down the street can hear, you can relax because it’s over and you know the score. Yes, we like those sports, the ones that aren’t 9 months long.

It’s so easy as a spectator to will something to happen, you can get so emotionally involved that getting cross at your player or team is almost a given. Why aren’t you winning? It’s so easy – just go faster, hit harder! We’ve all been there and we’re there again today.

The past 24 hours we have seen the pure madness of the Malacca Straits and its patchy weather conditions absorb Dongfeng’s hard earned 100+ nautical mile lead and spit it out as almost nothing.

Team Brunel are calling it a restart, Alvimedica are calling it a chance and we’re calling it a nightmare.

The following extract from Sam Greenfield’s blog will give you an idea of what the team onboard are experiencing after helplessly watching 70+ nautical miles evaporate into thin air.

I asked Charles about the past 24 hours. He didn’t really answer so I asked him to sum it up in one word. 'Nightmare, nightmare' he says. He doesn’t even look at me.

Pinned down by windless zones and adverse currents, this stretch of the leg was always going to be a lottery but the reality of leading the fleet for 16 days and the prospect of winning the home leg to China got into the heads of the Dongfeng crew. 'Subconsciously we keep fantasising about arriving home first,' said Charles, 'We’re not thinking about what it’s doing to us mentally.'

The forecasts all suggest that once the fleet escape this part of the Straits, they could have stronger northeasterly winds to carry them down the narrowest part to Singapore. But as we’ve seen, the madness of Malacca can throw just about any boat it wants. Let’s just hope it is someone else’s turn next to feel its wrath, and that Dongfeng will have just a little sprinkling of good luck tonight and make it to Singapore with some kind of reasonable position in the fleet intact.

There’s still 1352 miles to go but the reality is this leg is about to start again from stretch and this is the cruel (although lucky for some) fate of offshore sailing and it’s painfully unpredictable nature.