Volvo Ocean Race Leg 7, Day 13: MAPFRE chasing fleet towards Falkland Islands
by Volvo Ocean Race 30 Mar 2018 06:51 PDT
30 March 2018
Volvo Ocean Race Leg 7 from Auckland to Itajai, day 13 on board Dongfeng. Rough conditions few miles efore the Horn © Martin Keruzore / Volvo Ocean Race
The overall race leader, MAPFRE, resumed racing on Friday morning (UTC) following a Cape Horn pit-stop to make repairs to a torn mainsail, as well as a damaged mast track and boom.
The move, which cost MAPFRE nearly 13-hours when they suspended racing, leaves the Spanish team 260-miles behind the fleet, with the leader, Team Brunel, just over 1,600 miles from the finish line in Itajaí, Brazil.
While the team had prepared for the possibility of a stop to repair the mast track by having shore support on stand-by near Cape Horn, the pit-stop became mandatory when the mainsail split into two pieces, torn from luff to leech, just before the Horn.
"We've been lucky in a way that we broke it so close by and that we can repair it now with the shore team," said watch captain Pablo Arrarte.
"The repairs always take longer than you would like," acknowledged skipper Xabi Fernández. "It is not so easy because the repair of the mainsail has to dry well, but we will start sailing towards Brazil, not at 100% but working as hard as we can to lose the shortest time possible."
Up ahead, the fleet charges on, pushing east-northeast, and passing just south of the Falkland Islands, where conditions remain fierce.
"The Southern Ocean just doesn't want to let us off the hook and keeps us fully in its grip," wrote Brunel skipper Bouwe Bekking.
"The wind direction is such that we are still not really heading north, we're tight reaching in 28-35 knots in very cold water.
"It is also painful to see we will lose in every position report, with the boats behind getting better breeze. There is one routing forecast where MAPFRE would even win this this leg! But that is yacht racing, not always fun, never predictable and that is what makes it special."
Team AkzoNobel navigator Jules Salter agreed the weather was far from ideal.
"Not great for tired people and boats," Salter said. "But we can use these conditions for some quick miles to the northeast as we await the low pressure that chased us down into the Horn to cross Patagonia and eventually catch us as we sail past the Falklands.
"That will give us downwind conditions again, probably with a tricky sea state but at least warming up for each mile north."
Also making progress is Team Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag who continue to make miles towards the Chilean coast, following the loss of crew member John Fisher.
A touching tribute to John from Matt Allen, the President of Australian Sailing and a friend, can be seen at the end of Friday's Daily Show here.
www.volvooceanrace.com
Update from Team AkzoNobel
Team AkzoNobel has left the Southern Ocean after spending more than a week in the stormy and freezing conditions of one of the world's most inhospitable regions on Leg 7 of the Volvo Ocean Race around the world.
The nine-person crew passed close to Cape Horn on Chile's Hornos Island at 1722 UTC (1922 CEST) – 11 days, 16 hours, and 22 minutes since leaving Auckland, New Zealand bound for Itajaí, Brazil on the longest leg of the eight-month sailing marathon.
The notorious rocky outcrop which marks the southernmost tip of South America was the sailors' first sight of land since leaving New Zealand on March 18 and marks the transition between the South Pacific and South Atlantic Oceans.
The team's transition from the South Pacific to the South Atlantic was made at speed as the sailors took full advantage of strong winds and comparatively flat water to power past the iconic bluff grey headland at over 20 knots (37 kilometers per hour).
The high-speed fly-by made the traditional marking of the occasion with brandy and cigars a little difficult, but the crew was able to assemble at the back of the boat for a group photo with Cape Horn as the backdrop.
Weighing heavily on the minds of the sailors was the loss of a fellow-competitor – British sailor John Fisher, a.k.a "Fish" – who went overboard from the Hong Kong yacht Sun Hun Kai Scallywag and is presumed lost at sea.
"This leg claimed the life of a good man in Fish," said team AkzoNobel watch captain Chris Nicholson (AUS). "Everyone on board has been affected by it and we send our thoughts to his family and his friends."
Brazilian Olympic gold medallist Martine Grael who is competing in her first Volvo Ocean Race as a helmsman and sail trimmer with team AkzoNobel said Fisher had helped keep her motivated during tough times on the campaign.
"He gave me super nice advice about what the race is all about – the people," Grael said. "He was a really nice person and I feel terrible that he has been lost at sea."
The Southern Ocean more than lived up to its fearsome reputation with the crews having to cope with storm force winds and colossal waves, as well as snow, rain and hail as they dove deep into the southern latitudes to take the shortest route from New Zealand to South America.
This was Nicholson's fifth time racing through these inhospitable waters – a personal achievement he says he never dreamed of when he was a child reading books about the world's great explorers.
"Fifth time around – as a kid I never even thought there would be one," Nicholson said with a big grin. "I'm over the moon about it and, who knows, I might even do a couple more."
Nicholson paid tribute to the crew's teamwork that had helped get them through what he said had been the most physically and mentally exhausting Southern Ocean leg since his first time during the 2001-02 Volvo Ocean Race.
"This one was a pretty full-on dose of the Southern Ocean," he said. "There just didn't seem to be a break at any stage, there was no respite, it was constant.
"Everyone was pretty well prepared mentally, but you still have to step up to handle it and that was really pleasing to see."
Although exhausted by the incessant four-hours-on/four-hours-off watch rotation they had maintained for the previous 11 days, all nine sailors – as well as the Volvo Ocean Race on board reporter chronicling the crew's race – were on deck for the milestone rounding.