Volvo Ocean Race: Scallywag's week in the Southern Ocean
by Compiled by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World.com/nz 25 Mar 2018 03:03 PDT
25 March 2018
Leg 7 from Auckland to Itajai, day 6 on board Sun Hung Kai / Scallywag. Gybe taking place and Ben Piggott is feeling the cold. 24 March, © Konrad Frost / Volvo Ocean Race
Seems hard to believe that a week ago the seven teams contesting the Volvo Ocean Race left Auckland bound for Itajai by way of Cape Horn.
SHK Scallywag, the top performed team over the last two trans-oceanic legs is back in her usual last place - from where she has struck in the last two legs to pull in the miles from the leaders.
From temperatures in the mid-20's in Auckland, the layers of clothing are coming on, along with the full visor helmets as they work their way along the Ice Exclusion Zone which has been imposed on the fleet - even though the incidence of ice moving norther this year is very light.
Here is words, video and images is SHK Scallywag's story of the first week of Leg 7 of the Volvo Ocean Race:
17 hours ago at 6.00pm on March 24 UTC
Latest from navigator Libby Greenhalgh onboard Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag:
Eventful so far...
Some trying times here on Scallywag as we have had an eventful couple of days out here in the middle of the ocean and it very much feels like the middle of the ocean.
Once again in the Southern Ocean we are safe guarded by an ice exclusion to the south, which frustratingly so acts more like a road block to where you want go and the fleet were yet again short gybing along it.
While we are not is close proximity to the other teams, we are only a 3rd of the way through and the long term forecast still poses plenty of opportunity to get back at the fleet and I am fairly confident we will be seeing our friends before the leg has finished with our sun hats on
in warmer climes.
The motivation to push ourselves has to come from within the team especially when you are short gybing and cannot immediately display the benefit from the boats around. The never give up Scallywag mentality is strong and at the end of the day racing this type of boat in this part of the world is a pretty special feeling and pretty rare opportunity. Though at times you are faced with the real potential consequences and so far we have had a couple that are not helping our quest to Itajai.
A lucking spotted but damaged active runner block and chaffed runner tail was more than a little concerning as it tends to help our rig stay in the sky and throwing in a Chinese gybe later on for good measure (I would say that tested our runner repair but that was the lazy one!) has not exactly speeded up the process. Especially when you look around and realise there is no one there just us and that middle of the ocean suddenly seems very far and very alone.
We are not far off point Nemo here, the most remote location on planet earth from human civilisation, apparently the space station is nearer to us. While we might not be there exactly most of this ocean feels like we are.
Cheer for now,
Libby at the nav station.
Hot chocolates drinks: 2
Favourite food: parmesan cheeeeeeeese. Amaaaaaazing.
Number of layers: 3 pairs of thermal bottoms, two tops, a jumper, two mid layers, beanie, gloves and 3 pairs of socks.
Top speed: 29.7 KT
Miles to go: 4215, 2215 to the Horn
ETA: 3rd April
Mar 23 2018 10:40 AM
From navigator Libby Greenhalgh onboard SHK / Scallywag:
FR0 MH0 FR0 MH0 MH0 FR0
Probably don't want to make a typo there but that has been the yo yo decision we have been trying to make and not quite getting right.
I am sure the viewers are watching us yet again break away from the pack and taking a higher risk decision with mile losing consequences.
Bold it may look like but not entirely in our control no. The unintentional switcharoo we did on the fleet when we peeled to our FR0 initial wasn't as bad as we thought we had gained on the fleet as in fact a few hours later we could see our favourite friends TTOP, however the 8 nm further north put us closer to the high and we been lifted and lighter and are in a mile losing position.
Should we gybe south and take a loss and hook into the same pressure as our fleet in an attempt to minimize the loss, probably. Will we probably not. Difficult decisions with a front chasing us down and gybe impending coupled with colder wetter conditions and keeping the crew ready and psyched for the 24hr gybe of in nuclear breeze.
Anyway as always there is opportunity and we will be spying it to be right next to them all or within a few miles at Cape Horn when the doors are thrown wide open.
That's all now
Libby
Hot chocolates drunk: 2
Meal of the moment: carbonara
Favourite thing onboard: sweet chili sauce
Fastest speed:26.7
__________________________________________
Mar 21 2018 10:39 AM
Latest from navigator Libby Greenhalgh onboard Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag:
Minus 6 degrees and counting.
The first 48 hours have been non stop and the first 24hours brutal for getting any rest and the result you could see as everyone and everything became slower onboard. There were plenty of opportunities in the first 24hours and we didn't do the best job of capitalising on them. After being unusually slightly late for the start we were never really able to wiggle our way around anyone on the the inshore part of the leg start. But once able to stretch our legs we were back in the mix by the Coromandel peninsula.
Having gained along the headland we chose to cross the fleet rather than lead them back south, the first not quite right decision, a little starboard port incident in the middle of the night with Mapfre added some excitement and saw them doing a two turn penalty. No that this slowed them down that much!!!
As we split from the fleet we were also suffering an instrument failure which meant in someways we were sailing blind so less than ideal. We probably should have tacked back and kept a visual on the fleet but we chose to stick with our plan and hold slightly further offshore to not fall into the lighter winds of the Bay of Plenty.
The next big gain came from short tacking along East Cape and we were late in our approach to begin this. The lack of sleep and the fact that a head cold seems to be sweeping through our boat meant lethargy was at a high and tacking was unusually slow, meanwhile I was being sea sick bonus when you are trying to navigate!
All in all not a great 24hours people wise but we hung in there made some gains at the end and were a matter of 5nm behind the leaders as we turned the corner. This closed very quickly as the front runners ran into lighter winds, however are positioning further to leeward was not strong and saw us longer term suffer.
Last sched gives us a small gain on the leader of 3nm we will take that. It is only day 2 of currently what looks like a very quick leg to Itajaí (best get that village open early current routings have us getting there on the 4th) and anything can happen. 22nm miles is nothing especially in Scallywag world with 55KT of wind to come big seas and cold temperatures, in 12 hours the sea temperature has dropped 6 degrees as we head towards iceberg land.
That's all for now.
Libby at the nav station
Hot chocolates drunk: 2
Favourite meal: still sweet and sour (so far)
Fastest speed: 26 KT
Number of wind checks: 5 oooh just doing one now!
Number times I have been sick: 2 but not for 24hours!
Latest from navigator Libby Greenhalgh onboard Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag:
Minus 6 degrees and counting.
The first 48 hours have been non stop and the first 24hours brutal for getting any rest and the result you could see as everyone and everything became slower onboard. There were plenty of opportunities in the first 24hours and we didn't do the best job of capitalising on them. After being unusually slightly late for the start we were never really able to wiggle our way around anyone on the the inshore part of the leg start. But once able to stretch our legs we were back in the mix by the Coromandel peninsula.
Having gained along the headland we chose to cross the fleet rather than lead them back south, the first not quite right decision, a little starboard port incident in the middle of the night with Mapfre added some excitement and saw them doing a two turn penalty. No that this slowed them down that much!!!
As we split from the fleet we were also suffering an instrument failure which meant in someways we were sailing blind so less than ideal. We probably should have tacked back and kept a visual on the fleet but we chose to stick with our plan and hold slightly further offshore to not fall into the lighter winds of the Bay of Plenty.
The next big gain came from short tacking along East Cape and we were late in our approach to begin this. The lack of sleep and the fact that a head cold seems to be sweeping through our boat meant lethargy was at a high and tacking was unusually slow, meanwhile I was being sea sick bonus when you are trying to navigate!
All in all not a great 24hours people wise but we hung in there made some gains at the end and were a matter of 5nm behind the leaders as we turned the corner. This closed very quickly as the front runners ran into lighter winds, however are positioning further to leeward was not strong and saw us longer term suffer. Last sched gives us a small gain on the leader of 3nm we will take that.
It is only day 2 of currently what looks like a very quick leg to Itajaí (best get that village open early current routings have us getting there on the 4th) and anything can happen. 22nm miles is nothing especially in Scallywag world with 55KT of wind to come big seas and cold temperatures, in 12 hours the sea temperature has dropped 6 degrees as we head towards iceberg land.
That's all for now.
Libby at the nav station
Hot chocolates drunk: 2
Favourite meal: still sweet and sour (so far)
Fastest speed: 26 KT
Number of wind checks: 5 oooh just doing one now!
Number times I have been sick: 2 but not for 24hours!