Volvo Ocean Race Leg 5 - Day 2
by Volvo Ocean Race media 19 Mar 2015 14:26 GMT
19 March 2015
Uggh! It's Groundhog Day!
Time stands still for fleet as they pass international dateline
The Volvo Ocean Race's six-strong fleet were stuck in Groundhog Day as they raced through the South Pacific – and they were not particularly enjoying the experience on Thursday.
In the famous Hollywood film, the hero played by Bill Murray, finds himself trapped in time over the same 24 hours, and the crews now know exactly how he felt.
They found themselves crossing the international dateline, which meant that the clock, for a while, turned back to March 18.
The conditions after passing New Zealand's East Cape, were hardly conducive to comfortable sailing – 30 knots of wind (56 kilometres per hour) and a much heightened sea state.
They have avoided by far the worst of Cyclone Pam, which wrought havoc in the South Pacific towards the end of last week, killing at least 11 on the archipelago of Vanuatu.
That weather system also led to a three-day delay in the departure of the Volvo Ocean Race fleet from Auckland on Wednesday before the 6,776-nautical mile (nm) Leg 5 to Itajaí in south-east Brazil.
Nevertheless, they could still feel its aftermath for a very rocky ride early on Thursday.
All on board are hardened professional offshore sailors, but many have been reporting severe bouts of seasickness as they speed through the South Pacific towards the Southern Ocean.
Amory Ross (USA), Onboard Reporter for second-placed Team Alvimedica (Charlie Enright/USA), gave a graphic description of life on the boat in his latest dispatch on Thursday.
"Even in her subdued state, 'former' Cyclone Pam is packing one heck of a punch," he wrote. "I'd be lying if I said our enthusiasm for getting out here is unchanged.
"Now that we're actually here, everyone's either green or exhausted and often both. The sea state is really confused and it makes doing anything abnormally difficult.
"We talk a lot about racing these boats, the demands and skills it requires. But when the conditions are like they are now, simply living takes considerable effort too."
Team SCA's Abby Ehler (GBR) added: "It's bumpy, it's wet and it's wild. It's like being on a rodeo horse or a rollercoaster. It's just intense and requires 100 per cent concentration, not only helming, but when you move around."
Team Brunel (Bouwe Bekking/NED), third overall, were making the early pace in the toughest of the nine Volvo Ocean Race legs, with Ross's Team Alvimedica just 2.9nm behind.
The rest of the fleet – race leaders Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing (Ian Walker/GBR), Team SCA (Sam Davies/GBR)), Dongfeng Race Team (Charles Caudrelier/FRA), and MAPFRE (Iker Martínez/ESP) – were then spread within 17nm of the pace-setters (0940 GMT, Thursday).
The boats are expected to reach their Brazilian destination, in a stage in which they pass the key landmark of Cape Horn, around April 7.
www.volvooceanrace.com
Wet, noise, violent - we could have done without that second 18th of March (from Dongfeng Race Team)
Boat speed: 19 knots. 30 knots of breeze in 5–6 metre waves over the last 14 hours.
Position in fleet: Fifth position after a fleet divide. 10nm North East of Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing in the Southern pack.
Wet, tough, violent. To download the latest raw footage from onboard Dongfeng click here
The whole fleet has crossed the International Dateline, and so in effect repeated their 18th of March and are now heading 'home'. As opposed to seeing the degrees east of longitude increasing as they have done since Alicante until now, the degrees of westerly longitude will tick down all the way back to Europe.
From a LiveX with Black earlier and the blog from Yann below, conditions onboard Dongfeng are clearly heinous right now, tough rough reaching in up to 30 knots of wind, big water over deck, some of the crew seasick – like most of us would be!
Black "The situation onboard is hard, I got seasick and it's very bad. Eric is sick too. The wind speed is up to 30 knots, and the boat keeps crashing"
Unfortunately the fleet seems to have left too late from Auckland to be able to hang on to the coat tails of Cyclone Pam for a sleigh ride east, and so they are soon possibly even going to be going upwind to get across a growing area of high pressure (and lighter winds) forming in the vacuum behind Pam...not the Southern Ocean everyone has been hyping about all week – but not surprising either having delayed for the cyclone to escape. Mind you, after the bashing they have been taking this past 24 hours, the guys might be happy for a change and let the sea state that Pam left behind calm down a bit! The worst kind of sailing though is the leftover swell and waves coupled with no wind...can often be more boat breaking than the big winds...
Yann's blog – Same day as yesterday but much wetter!
We passed the international dateline. What does that mean? Well the degrees of longitude decrease when we sail east...which means we are getting closer to the finish, whereas up to now it feels like you are just getting further away from the start. And above all, it means we changed day. In fact we have had a second 18th of March, but much wetter second time around! And wet it has been. Wet, noisy, violent and luckily fast. And if we add to these challenges a bit of seasickness, and some difficulties to eat normally, to be honest we really could have done without this second 18th of March.
The sun has set and the wind has moderated a bit. We're going to hoist a bit more sail. The temperature has already dropped a bit, but remains comfortable. The longitude has decreased but the latitude increased. We're heading towards the Roaring Forties.
Until tomorrow.
Yann