Barcelona World Race

Barcelona World Race - Day 91

by Barcelona World Race media 31 Mar 2015 19:33 BST 31 March 2015

The last laugh

GAES Centros Auditivos set to complete the podium tomorrow
Corbella and Marín aiming for April 1 homecoming, but the Med may demand a second night at sea
Guillermo Altadill praises his Barcelona World Race co-skipper "I don't think we could have finished the race without him"
Spirit of Hungary prepares for the Doldrums

The tricksy Mediterranean could yet play a final April Fool on the Barcelona World Race fleet. Third placed Anna Corbella and Gerard Marín hope to arrive back in the port of Barcelona, from which they have run their GAES Centros Auditivos campaign, tomorrow. However, Anna Corbella cautiously warned that they had spent last night drifting and virtually becalmed – as Neutrogena ghosted over the finish line into second – and they may well have more than 24 hours of light winds sailing ahead of them to cover the remaining 210 miles from their position off the coast of Alicante to the Barceloneta finish line and complete the podium of the Barcelona World Race.

"We are planning to arrive on the first of April, but at the moment we are not very sure of that because last night we spent some hours floating with no wind, and we have a bit more of these conditions to pass this afternoon and tonight," she reported today.

"We ll see what happens but probably if we don't arrive on the 1st we'll arrive on the 2nd in the morning. We hope so. So we need one or two more nights at sea to arrive home, and at the moment we are sailing with only 2 or 3 knots of wind, and the wind is from the north and very, very light."

Anna Corbella will finish her second Barcelona World Race – having come sixth in 2011, with she and co-skipper Marín expected to arrive in the evening of Wednesday April 1, or early on Thursday April 2. Corbella confirmed: "We could arrive tomorrow evening, but the Meteo files are not so accurate and the calms are turning out much heavier that the forecasts say, so there's the possibility that we will arrive on Thursday in the morning."

Old fashioned ways

Having recovered from a long, late night which saw them arrive in Barcelona at 0147 local time, to take second place in the Barcelona World Race, Neutrogena'sGuillermo Al tadill today took time to reflect on his race and praise his co-skipper Jose Muñoz: "He's a good sailor Jose, and he's very patient. And the proof is he was holding me for these three months! So he had to be really patient! And this patience makes him good at solving problems. So sometimes what would happen is more or less we would be pushing the boat and making problems or breaking things, and he was sorting these things and repairing things. He made an awesome job repairing the sails and so on, without him I don't think we could have finished the race."

Altadill also revealed the extent of the damage they sustained to their communications equipment and how the duo adapted by reverting to a more traditional style of sailing. "It was quite tough, we had a problem with the gybe and all the antennas, the satellite antennas, GPS, communications, everything is off. And we sailed three weeks with no weather information, we didn't know where the other boats were, and we only communicated with the team just with the safety Iridium. So it was a little bit tough, but then you get used to it and we sailed a little bit the old fashioned way.

"Instead of being more in front of the computer you have more time on deck, more time watching the clouds, the wind, and then you make your own idea of the weather.

"When we stopped in New Zealand we didn't go to check the position of the others because we knew they were very close. When you lose a lot of miles stopping and then you go back to the race, and you see the other ones very close, then you start pushing again and then you can break things. So we decided we don't have any information and just sailed the boat as best as we can."

Atlantic quartet

Back in the Atlantic, fourth and fifth-placed One Planet One Ocean and Pharmaton and We Are Water remain perfectly in step with one another, both averaging exactl y 10.7 knots of boat speed over the past 24 hours, midway between the latitude of the Canary Islands and Madeira. Just over 100 miles continues to separate them. In sixth, Renault Captur have several days of sailing in moderate but consistent north-easterly trade winds, averaging around 8 knots of boat speed.

Meanwhile the last boat in the Southern Hemisphere, Spirit of Hungary, is preparing for a lengthy Doldrums crossing, Conrad Colman blogging today around 300 miles off the coast of Brazil:

"The Doldrums are an infamous area for sailors, especially those in a hurry like us. This is typically the zone of scorching sun, pitiful wind, fried nerves and parched scuttlebutts.

"Unfortunately our luck with the weather is holding true, meaning that we are lining up for a challenging crossing of a wide band of light to no wind, from five degrees south of the equator to one degree north. In a classic case of the rich getting richer, or at least getting home sooner, the leaders made it through with barely a slow down when they were here a couple of weeks ago.

"So, with my shoulder getting stronger by the day, we're braced for a long battle with marauding squall clouds, fitful winds, a stupidly powerful sun and endless sail changes."

Rankings at 1400hrs UTC:

1. Cheminées Poujoulat (B Stamm – J Le Cam) finished 25/03/2015 at 17:50:25 UTC in 84d 05h 50min 25s
2. Neutrogena (G Altadill – J Muñoz) finished 30/03/2015 at 23:47:00 UTC in 89d 11h 47min
3. GAES Centros Auditivos (A Corbella – G Marín) + 209.9 miles to finish
4. We Are Water (B Garcia – W Garcia) + 1256.8 miles to leader
5. One Planet One Ocean & Pharmaton (A Gelabert – D Costa) + 1369.1 miles to leader
6. Renault Captur (J Riechers – S Audigane) + 2588.5 miles to leader
7. Spirit of Hungary (N Fa – C Colman) + 3174.5 miles to leader
ABD Hugo Boss (A. Thomson - P. Ribes)

Skippers' quotes:

Anna Corbella, GAES Centros Auditivos

"We'll see what happens but probably if we don't arrive on the 1st we'll arrive on the 2nd in the morning. We hope so. So we need one or two more nights at sea to arrive home, and at the moment we are sailing with only 2 or 3 knots of wind, and the wind is from the north and very, very light.

"My feelings are more or less the same [as when she finished the last Barcelona World Race]. Because the main feeling is that we want to arrive, we want to go home and eat normally, and see friends and family, and have a shower and all these normal things that we've missed a lot for these three months.

"For me the strongest memory is the passage of Cape Horn, it's a really special moment. As the other time it was very special, the weather was perfect and the light, the helicopter coming to take the pictures – everything was perfect, it was a very good moment, and I have a special feeling for that moment."

Guillermo Altadill, Neutrogena

"I think it was the most difficult [race I've done], sailing doublehanded non-stop with this IMOCA, it's a tough job. It's different to the Volvo or the Whitbreads, or the other ones with full crew, you share all the work and the stress. Here you can only share it in half. And in terms of satisfaction it was one unfinished job for the last few years, and finishing here in Barcelona with a second place is a good moment, I'm very happy!

[Loss of comms] ""It was quite tough, we had a problem with the gybe and all the antennas, the satellite antennas, GPS, communications, everything is o ff. And we sailed three weeks with no weather information, we didn't know where the other boats were, and we only communicated with the team just with the safety Iridium. So it was a little bit tough, but then you get used to it and we sailed a little bit the old fashioned way.

"Instead of being more in front of the computer you have more time on deck, more time watching the clouds, the wind, and then you make your own idea of the weather. When you have a lot of information you have to process this information, it takes a lot of time and a lot of energy, you spend a lot of time at the computer. So we made half the trip one way, and half another. It was good, you know, you learn a lot of things when you don't have this information we are used to.

"When we stopped in New Zealand we didn't go to check the position of the others because we knew they were very close. When you lose a lot of miles stopping and then you go back to the race, and you see th e other ones very close, then you start pushing again and then you can break things. So we decided we don't have any information and just sailed the boat as best as we can."

[Co-skipper] "He's a good sailor Jose, and he's very patient. And the proof is he was holding me for these three months! So he had to be really patient! And this patience makes him good at solving problems. So sometimes what would happen is more or less we would be pushing the boat and making problems or breaking things, and he was sorting these things and repairing things. So he made an awesome job repairing the things, the sails and so on, without him I don't think we could have finished the race.

"We lost one A2, we broke the jib top, we lost the antennas, we broke some rudder system. But Jose was repairing everything and he made these things happen, so he did a really good job. I think we broke more things than normal because we pushed a little bit in the beginning, s o in the end we decided to slow down a little bit.

"You know what I told Alex before – when you do this race doublehanded you cannot imagine how tough it is singlehanded. So after this race, all the solo sailors have all my respect. I think they are unbelievable."

Conrad Colman,Spirit of Hungary

"The Doldrums are an infamous area for sailors, especially those in a hurry like us. This is typically the zone of scorching sun, pitiful wind, fried nerves and parched scuttlebutts.

"In the south, a cold front at the unusually high level of Rio has obliterated the high, and in the north, a compact low off the coast of Guinea is wreaking havoc. The flow from both the north and the south is split by its confrontation with the other and each spurts its energy to the east by Africa and to the west by Brazil. In the middle there will be almost no wind at all. Our goal now is to stay just on the western edge of this mess of nothingness, far enough west to find some semblance of wind but far enough east so to help our angle northwards after we have escaped.

"So, with my shoulder getting stronger by the day, we're braced for a long battle with marauding squall clouds, fitful winds, a stupidly powerful sun and endless sail changes. Mental preparation is key for the coming days, as it's possible to either give up the drive to push ahead or scream oneself hoarse with frustration. What's needed is a delicate blend of 'Que sera, sera' and one of my favourite quotes, 'When you're running through hell, don't stop!'."

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