Volvo Ocean Race - Leg 4 Day 2

Crewmen on Volvo Open 70 The Black Pearl on watch as they speed into the Southern Ocean on Leg 4 © Justin Clougher

Staying focused

The tactic being taken by all the Volvo Ocean Race teams today, is to dive south to dodge the worst of the massive high, which is positioned between the fleet and the first ice gate of leg four. The yachts are still in very close proximity with only a 78 nautical mile divide between the most southerly yacht Brasil 1 (Torben Grael) and most northerly ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse).

Paul Cayard on his good ship the Black Pearl, explained the tactic earlier today, “The forecast for the next three days is that we are working the south side of a high pressure cell turning into a ridge. This ridge will block our path to the first ice waypoint which is actually a gate. This "block" will probably compress the fleet as the first boats hit the wall first and the other come piling in from behind.

“Today we were in a "see-saw" battle with Ericsson, within sight of each other all day. That was fun and we each learned a bit I am sure.” The Pirates have been battling it out with the Ericsson Racing Team (Neal McDonald) and the Brazilians for the past day. Unfortunately in the past 12 hours Brasil 1 has fallen back slightly by diving further south than the others. Ericsson though, managed to stay with the black and red boat and passed them yesterday to take third place. They have increased the lead this afternoon to six nautical miles, whilst being eight miles to the south.

Brasil 1 has had a hard start to the race, they revealed today that they ripped their genoa at the start and have spent all the hours since piecing it back together. Luckily the sail has not been needed since but they know it’s only a matter of time before the call for it will go up.

Knut Frostad, watch leader onboard the Brazilian yacht, humorously explained this morning, the great questions different sail combinations pose in yacht racing. This is especially apt, after the last leg, where many teams were losing precious miles to bad sail choices. “It's amazing how precious these pieces of cloth are to us. As girls can spend hours watching, commenting, discussing and shopping for cloth to wear, here we are discussing, commenting, watching (we have been shopping as well) all this cloth, just to hang it up in the rig.

“And as well, the big questions are: What shall I wear (hoist) tonight? What will the others wear (hoist)? After I have gone to the party: Do I look good (are we fast) tonight? She's looking good (that sail looks fast)! Wonder where she bought it (we have to make one in Rio)! To look even better, I will wear some sexy stockings (let's hoist the staysail as well to be even faster)! Shit, I am not feeling well in this dress, I run home and change (this is not fast enough, let's peel to another sail)! I should have spent more time in front of the mirror (in the wind tunnel). Well, at least no one ripped my dress off (at least the helmsman didn't broach the boat so we ripped this spinnaker and lost it!)!”

The race leader again for the moment is Mike Sanderson’s team on ABN AMRO ONE with a 19 nautical mile lead on the pack. He focused today on how hard it was for him to leave Wellington, his fiancée, family, friends and home country for the Southern Ocean. But instead of being worried about the high pressure ahead, he’s been firmly focusing on what’s happening above that, a dying tropical storm to the north in the South Pacific. “For now the big decision on this leg is how to deal with a big low that used to be a tropical storm, there are going to be some interesting tactical decisions needed to be made by the fleet in the next 48 hours. Will make for some fun watching.”

Position Report: (16:00 GMT)