Volvo Ocean Race Leg 5 - Day 12

Skipper Ken Read at the helm of PUMA during leg 5 of the Volvo Ocean Race © Amory Ross / PUMA Ocean Racing / Volvo Ocean Race

Gunning for glory at Cape Horn

With barely more than a day before the cigars can be broken out when Groupama (Franck Cammas/FRA) and PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG (Ken Read/USA) reach Cape Horn, the race is back on again. Thoughts of survival mode have been put aside as PUMA begin to make their presence felt and Groupama answer.

The sea state for the leading pair has improved, and both teams are piling on the pressure, reverting back to a full-on racing set up as they enter a phase more reminiscent of a race. They will approach the Cape in downwind conditions requiring several gybes, which will introduce a tactical element not seen for the past eight or more days.

According to Groupama’s helmsman/trimmer Thomas Coville, there is a psychological game at stake as Groupama play ‘poker’ with PUMA for first and second places. The team is monitoring and analysing the positions, headings and speeds from the three-hourly position reports.

“We can feel the pressure of PUMA, who needs not to lose us before Cape Horn, and possibly to come back,” Coville said. “We have to show we can be faster.

“Until now, in the south, we followed our rhythm and sailed our own race. Today we are arriving near the Horn and we are collecting the fruits of what we have done over the past 10 days, with all the relative tiredness.”

However, Groupama and PUMA are still in the Southern Ocean and it is necessary to keep the foot hovering over the brake pedal, just in case. There is a front coming in from the north, but before it arrives, there will be a band of lighter air, which will throw in some tactical decisions.

“It’s about how you deal with the light and then what you do with the new stuff,” PUMA’s skipper Ken Read said in a call to race headquarters earlier today. A pleasant 15-knot downwind sail around Cape Horn would be nice, but according to Read, it doesn’t look likely. The low will reach PUMA around 250 nm from the Horn and with it will come a howling Southern Ocean gale to give the fleet a final pasting.

“Makes for an exciting last little bit, seeing as it will be VMG downwind sailing with a few gybes thrown in… in about 40 knots of wind. Like everything so far in this race, it’s been about facing adversity and dealing with it - that’s all we can do,” Read said.

Further back in third place and now 385.8 nm off the lead, Telefónica (Iker Martínez/ESP) are sailing as fast as they dare, but could of course go faster had they not been nursing damage incurred earlier. The crew has made a temporary repair which they are confident will hold until the boat arrives in the Argentine port of Ushuaia after rounding Cape Horn.

Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing (Ian Walker/GBR), the fourth boat still racing towards Cape Horn, have had a big night, although their delta is still 1425 nm. A new top speed was set for the team when Rob Greenhalgh clocked a boat speed of 41.5 knots, Ian Walker was knocked off the wheel during a huge surf and the ‘piece de resistance’ was a crash tack.

“The wind instruments had blown off the top of the mast and the numbers that Anthony Nossiter was steering to in the pitch black went haywire.

“My last words to him before he started helming were, ‘whatever you do, don’t Chinese gybe in to windward’. He took me to my word and as the numbers indicated he was going to crash gybe, he steered hard up to weather. The net result was an inadvertent tack and ensuing capsize,” reported the skipper.

The boat was pinned on her side as the mainsail was hard against the runners and the keel was canted the wrong way, but according to Walker, the whole episode was remarkably peaceful. “Once we got some boys on deck, we managed to tack the runners, centre the keel, back down and get sailing again,” he said. After checking the boat over, they were off again after a very lucky escape.

Still racing, but headed for a pit stop in Chile, the crew of CAMPER are trying to find new ways to fend off the inevitable boredom associated with nursing the boat. With less than 1500 nm to run before they are reunited with their shore team who will manage the repair work, the crew has survived some windy conditions and are in good spirits.

Position Report at 10:08:06 UTC:

www.VolvoOceanRace.com

Update from the Helm (by Ken Read, Skipper, PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG)

Believe it or not I can't sleep. The last few days have brought another host of issues. Most pressing has been the infection in Jono Swain’s elbow that started with a quick wash down the cockpit about a week ago and has turned into a mess. Lots of antibiotics and things have turned a corner for Jono, starting with him going on watch this afternoon. I have been driving for him these last few days. That is what we do out here. We all just keep backing each other up.

We are getting close. Maybe that is why I can't sleep. But of course this leg couldn't be complete without one final pasting. A secondary low is coming down the coast and will kick our butts about 250 miles from the Horn. Makes for an exciting last little bit seeing it will be VMG downwind sailing with a few jibes thrown in…in about 40 knots of wind. Well, I guess we are used to it by now, but it still doesn't make it right.

To say it is amazing this leg has turned out the way it has so far would be a vast understatement. I think Groupama and us have sailed pretty similarly. We basically communicate to each other through the 3-hour scheds. We see when the other boat is pushing or not, and we use that info to monitor our own boat. This is a race after all. When it is full-on and you need to back off a bit, you use your sched to say to the other guy, “Don't worry, we aren't going to push,” and thus starts an ego-driven, boat-breaking, crash and burn fest. Let’s be smart and pull the trigger when the conditions warrant. Of course, then one of us pulls the trigger to sail full speed immediately after the sched in order to hopefully maximize the time to be back up to speed! I guess we are communicating to a point… The ego-driven, boat-breaking, crash and burn fest then starts all over again. Two things are certainly clear. 1: When conditions warrant, we all have the power to break these boats. No matter who says this or that boat is built to withstand the elements in order to be able to be pushed harder than others, it just isn't true. Believe me, you can't call these boats fragile by any means. In fact, with the torture we put them through, it is simply amazing they are in one piece at all. Every boat is just one bad wave away from being healthy or hurt – any boat for that matter, from a 30 weekend cruiser to a Volvo 70. These boats are no exception. Which leads to point 2: We have certainly been calculated, but also lucky. We have caught air on many occasions when it was least expected. The crash that ensues is staggering. Heads pop out of the hatch and a crawling inspection around all the framing begins within minutes. We have been lucky so far. It’s like a car crash. You always wonder if it would have happened if you had left the house 5 seconds later or slowed at the orange light when you didn't. We have missed our car crash so far, so our timing has been pretty good. Have I ever mentioned that I knock on wood every time I say stuff like this? Our little piece of wood at the nav station is getting worn out.

So with Jono making a recovery, Thomas toughing it out and slowly getting better with his shoulder every day, and Casey also toughing it out and making all of his shifts now – we nearly have our pre-leg watch combinations back on deck. We are still rotating some of the hurt guys out and resting them when we can. Hopefully we get near full strength by the time we turn the corner, then the push is on. It is the race within the race. Get to the Horn, then race to Brazil. At least it seems like that sometimes.

- Kenny

Chile ever closer as shore crew prepares for swift turnaround (from CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand)

With the boat back up to 90 per cent of its normal speed, CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand has been chalking off the miles towards its pit stop in Puerto Montt on the west coast of Chile.

The boat is less than 1700 nautical miles from its destination where the boat will undergo the necessary repairs to the bow damage suffered in the Southern Ocean.

Shore crew manager Neil ‘Coxy’ Cox is already in Puerto Montt and preparing for a quick turnaround that will see the boat resume racing in Leg 5 as quickly as possible. By finishing the leg in Itajai, Brazil, the team will claim precious points that would soften the blow of their untimely setback, which occurred when they were leading the fleet.

Media crew member Hamish Hooper said Coxy, whose luggage didn’t make it to Puerto Montt with him, would be shaking things up at the Chilean port to ensure a quick and smooth turnaround.

“Coxy has landed on the ground minus his luggage, but that won’t matter one bit to him – he will have burst into town like a hurricane, charmed all the locals and have the place on red alert for our arrival in five or six days,” Hooper said.

Navigator Will Oxley stressed the importance of the shore crew whose sterling efforts are often overlooked.

“More so than ever the skills and resourcefulness of the shore crews will be brought into play as the boats make these unscheduled pit stops around the world,” he said.

Oxley predicted more twists and turns in this brutal leg that has also forced overall race leaders Telefónica into stopping in the Argentine port of Ushuaia to repair bow damage, while earlier on Team Sanya snapped their rudder and had to head back to Auckland.

“This race has been full of many surprises and I am sure there are more to come. This leg could become a race of the shore crews as much as the sailing ones,” Oxley said.

Disappointment inevitably results in introspection and the team has been mulling over the highs and lows of this leg, from the joy of the in-port race victory in Auckland, one of the team’s two home ports, to the pain of becoming yet another victim of the Southern Ocean’s menace having led the fleet.

“In reflecting on the week and this leg I can truly look back and say that it has been the hardest in any race I’ve done,” said trimmer Rob ‘Salty’ Salthouse. “It has also been some of the fastest and toughest conditions that I’ve raced in, doing extreme speeds in waves that were 12 metres or so high.”

So is Salty thinking about calling time on his round-the-world sailing career?

“If it was starting this week I would say ‘no’, but time has a wonderful way of curing the mind, so ask me in a week when the repairs are finished and we’re back on our way”, he said.

We think there is plenty of life in this old seadog yet.

A very lucky escape (from Ian Walker, Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing)

Right now the Southern Ocean is showing us who is boss. We are just shy of 50 degrees south and since the passage of the front 36 hours ago we have had sustained 30 – 40 knot winds. We are sailing with two reefs in the main and the J4, which is pretty controllable, but the sea state is horrendous as it remains confused behind the front.

We are sailing hard but trying to minimise the slamming as much as we can. It has been an eventful 24 hours with nighttime surfs up to 40 knots (Si Fi claimed that one), helmsmen being washed off the wheel (well that was me and luckily I landed in Craig’s lap) and the piece de resistance the crash tack. Nocka can claim this one but had mitigating circumstances as the wind gear blew off the top of the mast and the numbers he was steering to in - the pitch black - went haywire.

My last words to him before he started helming were ‘whatever you do… don’t Chinese gybe in to windward’. He took me to my word and as the numbers indicated he was going to crash gybe he steered hard up to weather. The net result was an inadvertent tack and ensuing capsize. It was bizarre down below trying to get dressed standing on the walls. It was remarkably peaceful. Once we got some boys on deck we managed to tack the runners, centre the keel back down and get sailing again. After a good check of everything we were off again.

A very lucky escape. So we have just under 2,000 miles to Cape Horn and it looks like it will be windy all the way. Hopefully the waves will sort themselves out a bit but either way the next five days are going to be anything but dull.