Gone Sailing - Drag race home

Drag race home

©Volvo Ocean Race 2005 - 2006

The last 12 hours of leg eight of the Volvo Ocean Race are shaping up to be a drag race to Rotterdam between Ericsson (Neal McDonald) – looking for another strong performance in this penultimate leg, ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson) – who would dearly like to lead the fleet into their home port, and today’s leader, Brasil 1 (Torben Grael). The fight has never been so intense. As the leading three yachts race on through the pea soup fog of the North Sea, one of the busiest shipping areas, they have been in eye contact for much of the time. Yesterday, Brasil 1 could see both boats until they sailed into the fog. “We couldn’t see much further than a mile,” writes Horacio Carabelli. “The situation was so difficult that we almost hit a tug that was on a collision course with us. The tug wasn’t caught by our radar. We just knew the position when we heard it on the VHF channel calling a vessel in a similar position to ours. The tug informed us that it was speeding up to pass us on starboard. The only thing we saw was the huge wave and the smoke from the engines.” A similar thing happened to Brunel (Matt Humphries) yesterday when they got a call on the VHF. “Sailing yacht, this is guard ship St John.” The ship informed Brunel that ahead lay a huge cable laying vessel with eight cables running 2.5 miles astern of the vessel and that Brunel would have to make a substantial alteration of course to starboard to avoid the cables. The crew had no option but to agree. “We shaved it as close as possible and rounded the eight ‘trailing buoys’ marking the safe passage with about 10 metres to spare. In doing the course change, we watched all our gains on Pirates and ABN AMRO TWO disappear and now we await the next sked with some trepidation,” explained navigator Will Oxley. In the ‘silver’ fleet, ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse) is determined not to be last into Rotterdam, although they do have the pressing problem of getting back past Pirates of the Caribbean (Paul Cayard) and Brunel. Although they are chasing hard, hunger is dominating thoughts onboard. “It is amazing how hungry you can be when you know there is nothing to eat. I am sure, if the day bag was full of goodies, then I wouldn’t fancy anything at all right now! Knowing that I have to wait hours before a tiny freeze dried meal however, has spurred my brain into playing games with me and my stomach,” says navigator Simon Fisher. Oh to swap places with Ericsson, who as well as being in the leading pack of three, are enjoying a few hot chocolates on deck and some beef jerky to sustain the crew. They have dug out their final rationings and are enjoying their favourite beef stew. The heater is working and they area welcomed to a cozy cabin during their off watch. Now, with less than 12 hours until the winner of leg eight crosses the finish line in Rotterdam, it is still anyone’s game and only five miles separates the top three in the ‘gold’ fleet. They are currently 60 miles north east of Cromer in East Anglia, 90 miles east of Grimsby on the Indefatigable Banks, 88 miles off the coast, with just over 100 miles to go to the finish. Pirates of the Caribbean leads the ‘silver’ fleet, which is 110 off the coast and still north of Newcastle.

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