Photos: L ©Robin Britton R ©Oskar Kihlborg

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Thu, 23 Mar 2006 13:48:36 UTC

In perfect conditions, blue skies and a 12 knot breeze, the Volvo Ocean Race fleet left Wellington, New Zealand after a short pit stop and headed back into the Southern Ocean. Leg 4, at 6,700 nautical miles the longest leg of the race.

As the start cannon sounded it was Paul Cayard and his Pirates onboard the Black Pearl who led the fleet off the start line. Leg 3 winner, movistar (Bouwe Bekking), started two hours later after opting to take a two-hour penalty for using outside assistance to fix the ‘bomb doors’ that prevent water coming round the canting keel pivot and into the boat at high pressure.

Photos: L ©Oskar Kihlborg R ©Brasil 1

Just three hours into the leg, fierce battles were waging everywhere. “In my book, you’d have to go some way to beat situations in the ocean like this, wrote Ericsson Racing Team’s navigator, Steve Hayles.

Before the end of day one, movistar had made up her two hour penalty and was holding joint lead with ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson) and Ericsson (Neal McDonald) was in sight of Pirates. Other than the changing weather conditions, nothing but icebergs and water stood between the boats and Cape Horn, a scoring gate on this leg.

On day two, the familiar sight of the two Dutch boats, ABN AMRO ONE and ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse), was at the head of the leaderboard and a battle royal was centred around Ericsson Racing Team and Pirates of the Caribbean. Ericsson seemed to be well up to speed on this leg.

Two Ice Gates were set into the course in order to keep the crews from straying into iceberg territory. The teams had to pass above the latitude of 48 degrees south at some point between the longitudes of each gate, the first set at 148 degrees west and 143 degrees west and the second set between 130 degrees west and 125 degrees west.

The race office had been working with C-Core, a remote sensing firm in Canada, to analyze radar scans of the southern Pacific Ocean in the hope of identifying areas with possible icebergs and it was this analysis that led to the placement of the ice gates in this leg.

As the fleet dived south in an attempt to avoid the worst of the remnants of a tropical storm, which was positioned between the fleet and the first Ice Gate, they were still very closely bunched, with a north south divide of only 78 nautical miles, but it was approaching ‘crunch time’. The fleet would have to commit to which side of the high pressure ridge which approached from the south, and the remnants of a tropical storm they would take.

“It is either a long trip up and over the top, or a rather nasty upwind beat around the bottom,” explained Simon Fisher, navigator of ABN AMRO TWO. “Until now, we have been biding our time, but the sand in the hour glass is running low and we will have to hedge our bets and see if the others follow.”

ABN AMRO ONE make a big decision

Early on day 3, February 21, ABN AMRO ONE made a big decision and took an expensive 43-mile loss, gybing south to position themselves as the furthest boat to the south, putting ABN AMRO TWO briefly into first position and dropping them to last. But the second Dutch boat continued to stay in the north. It was too late for them to take the southerly route and they watched their lead dwindle to almost nothing, realizing they were too far north.

“This brings on a range of emotions, from panic to anger, as you wish you could turn back the clock and make that sail change a little bit earlier and go with the fleet,” navigator Simon Fisher noted. Surprisingly, Brasil 1 made the same decision under the tutelage of navigator Marcel van Triest and they also had their moment of glory in the lead.

In the south, the battle still raged between the rest of the fleet. Ericsson moved up to second place, Pirates of the Caribbean was in third, but only two miles behind Ericsson and level pegging with ABN AMRO ONE. movistar was in sixth place, but still well in touch with the fleet, pinned between Ericsson to the north and Pirates of the Caribbean to the south.

Sightings of wildlife were reported by every team with talk of a giant quid being wrapped around the rudder of ABN AMRO ONE, regular albatross fly-pasts and whales basking nonchalantly within ten metres of Ericsson. No ice had been seen, but the temperature was dropping rapidly.

Ocean poker was the name of the game on day four, February 22, as the fleet began its approach to the first Ice Gate. It was looking more likely that the gamble taken by ABN AMRO TWO and Brasil 1 would pay off. They were now the nearest to the gate, but ahead, in the area of the gate, the winds were light and fluky. “So who is right and who is wrong?” asked Knut Frostad, watch leader on Brasil 1. “It’s just like playing poker. What cards do you guys hold? Or no cards at all and just showing up a brave face, trying to make everyone believe something?”

Although the rest of the fleet, now 100 miles to the south, had better breeze, they risked having to sail into headwinds to reach the gate and this would slow them considerably.

Ericsson Racing Team spent 36 hours repairing a crucial spinnaker which slowed them considerably. The Brazilians were beginning to feel the cold. “Carabelli was seen on deck last night wearing both a balaclava and a fleece hat on top. I can’t wait to see him when we get closer to zero. Five hats?” asked Norwegian toughie, Knut Frostad. movistar had their generator in pieces twice, but it was not a serious problem.

By 2200 GMT that night, the position report made dismal reading for ABN AMRO TWO and Brasil 1 in the north. They both posted big losses against the boats in the south when the wind dropped as they sailed nearer to the centre of the high pressure, while the rest of the fleet was still steaming along at 15 knots. The situation had become a navigator’s nightmare as they scratched their heads and spent hours pouring over weather models on their onboard computers, trying to find out the best way to approach the Ice Gate ahead.

On day five, February 23, the Southern Ocean simply was not delivering the high speed sleigh rides which everyone associates with this desolate part of the world. Instead, the Volvo Ocean Race fleet was floundering in no wind, but there was a hint of bad weather to come. “One of the reasons for hurrying to the Ice Gate, apart from the result, is the fact there is a chance that it will blow 50 knots there within 12 hours of us getting there, so the race is on, against the competitors and Mother Nature,” wrote Mike Sanderson from ABN AMRO ONE.

Onboard Ericsson Racing Team, navigator Steve Hayles almost forgot his 33rd birthday. “I’m not really a ‘Christmas and birthdays’ type of bloke and there is no time to celebrate out here, but it got me thinking about this race and my involvement in it,” he wrote.

“I can remember back to a very similar situation 12 years ago, sat in the nav station of a Volvo 60 heading for Cape Horn. There are lots of good things to be doing on your 21st birthday, rather than being bounced around in the ocean, thousands of miles away from the nearest land, but the truth is that it would not have mattered how cold it got, or how broken our boat was, you could not have stopped me from being here on that birthday or any other. It’s hard to describe the addiction you have for something that, for a large percentage of the time, you don’t really get much enjoyment from,” he reflected.

By 2200 on day 5, Brasil 1 finally picked up the fresh north westerly winds and romped towards the ice gate at a positive 12 knots.

Ice Gates

Brasil 1 passed the first Ice Gate during day 6, and, at 1600 GMT, was scorching towards the second gate before preparing to head south again towards the scoring gate at Cape Horn.

The rest of the fleet was crashing toward the ice gate as fast as the headwinds would allow, in the hope of reaching the gate and being able to crack off downwind before the gales that were forecast in the vicinity materialized.

Violent waves with gusts of up to 60 knots greeted the crews on 25 February, day seven of Leg 4 of the Volvo Ocean Race. All six yachts had successfully passed the first Ice Gate and were in full flight towards the second gate, just 78 nautical miles ahead for race leader, ABN AMRO ONE .

The first three boats, ABN AMRO ONE, Pirates of the Caribbean and movistar were separated by just 26 miles, while ABN AMRO TWO found themselves last by 224 miles, a position they have, so far, been unaccustomed to.

“Any feelings of frustration over our position have been replaced with a fire in my belly and an overwhelming desire to kick some ass,” wrote a determined Simon Fisher, the navigator on the kids boat.

After passing the second Ice Gate the fleet headed south towards the icy wastes of Antarctica on the penguin route, as Bouwe Bekking dubbed it. A fine battle was developing between the leading three boats and The Black Pearl squeezed a lead of just two miles ahead of ABN AMRO ONE, with movistar 14 miles behind in third. The sailing was fast and tactical as the fleet roared around a massive high pressure system, all the time being chased by a huge low. The leaders formed a line along the leading edge of the front, hoping to ride it all the way to Cape Horn.

For those at the front of the fleet, it was the best of times, but for those at the back, like ABN AMRO TWO, it was the worst of times. Their consolation was to hit the mythical 40 knots of boat speed barrier, seeing the magic numbers on their GPS.

Heading south

The fleet was careering south at breakneck speeds. Mike Sanderson (ABN AMRO ONE) was in a dilemma: “How hard to push? What are the other guys doing? Is going as fast as movistar was in the last sked [position report] good enough to hang on? Wait a minute; we don’t have to beat them in this leg, nor the other teams either. We just have to keep this thing in one piece… but there are 3.5 bonus points waiting at Cape Horn for the leader… those points would make our lives a little easier… but what if we push too hard and break?”

movistar was just reveling in the true Southern Ocean conditions. They covered 140.8 miles in one six hour period, averaging 25.5 knots. “Just ripping the miles, this is what we love to do,” wrote an elated Bekking.

Ericsson Racing Team wiped out in a Chinese gybe, but made a remarkable recovery. No bodies or gear were damaged, prompting navigator Steve Hayles to write: “It’s been the hardest 24 hours of the race for all us, and the brutal facts are, that with 2000 miles to Cape Horn, this sort of drama is far from over.”

ABN AMRO TWO tore a metre-long hole in her mainsail, the crew painstakingly repaired it and then ripped it again. “Right now it may as well be made of newspaper - at least we would have something to read,” wrote Simon Fisher.

Onboard Brasil Knut Frostad suggested that a call to the health and safety authorities might have been a good idea. “Can someone please remind me, in four years from now, that I really don’t need to do this any more. I do really like a big, warm nice bed and dry clothes, and I do love nice food… it’s true, I do! Why are you laughing and thinking ‘idiot, you said this four years ago.”

As the teams looked forward to rounding Cape Horn in three day’s time, the weather was grey, damp and foggy. Full face masks were worn by everyone to keep out the constant fire hose of icy water coming over the deck, otherwise it was impossible to see. The sea temperature dropped and it was feeling very, very cold. The heater broke on Ericsson Racing Team and everyone onboard was cold and tired.

Even taking all this into account, Paul Cayard on second-placed Pirates of the Caribbean said that these were the richest days of sailing that he has ever been given. “Being at sea, traveling extremely long distances and circumnavigating planet earth are bigger than life experiences for almost everybody and I appreciate being one of the few hundred people who get to do it,” he said by radio. The order in the fleet remained unchanged and everyone except third-placed movistar, made gains on the leader as the wind went lighter.

Nerves were on edge by day 10, February 28. Cape Horn was now just over 1,100 nautical miles ahead of the fleet, and with 3.5 points on offer for the first boat to get there, it was an anxious time onboard all the boats. A new weather system was approaching from behind the fleet and it was moving only a little quicker than the leaders. It was an ideal situation for Ericsson Racing Team and ABN AMRO TWO to make gain. By day 11, the fleet had closed together and the crews were beginning to cover their opponents.

The fog had gone, replaced by crisp dry air and although the fleet was able to keep pace with the front, the weather was forecast to deteriorate and the winds increase to 35 knots. It became ‘torture by numbers’ as the boats made gains and then losses on the leaders as the wind increased.

“A simple number like -6 can quite literally affect how you feel physically,” explained Steve Hayles from Ericsson Racing Team. “You stare at the screen in disbelief as you feel your shoulders tension up, but after a few minutes you realize that there is no asking for a recount, or having a second try. That six hours are over and you lost six miles; end of story.”

Day 12 and the fleet was preparing to enter some of the most hazardous waters in the world, a place where the Southern Ocean is at its shallowest and the winds funnel at 40 knots. This would be the exit of the Southern Ocean and the experience could be dramatic or benign. The fleet just had to wait to see what the weather Gods would decide to throw at them – and at whom.

The Gods chose movistar to be their victim.

”We’re sinking!”

At 0315, March 2, in 30 knots of wind and a big sea, Bouwe Bekking reported that movistar was taking on water at a huge rate and requested that the boats nearest to her, Brasil 1 and Ericsson Racing Team, should stand by to offer immediate assistance.

“We are sinking. Everybody up,” commanded Bekking as the water poured into the boat around the keel box. “Slow the boat down, the water is coming in very fast, and close the water tight hatches,” Bekking shouted in the darkness.

Within minutes, the crew was knee deep in water and the safety gear and grab bags were moved on deck. The sail area was reduced to only the staysail and the yacht slowed down as the crew frantically pumped.

“A sailor’s nightmare is sinking,” wrote Bekking at 0945 GMT. “This looked like a pretty serious situation. If we had rats onboard, they would have jumped off by now.”

Down below, water was swirling around the midships area of the boat. It was a scene that Hitchcock could only dream of. Water and electricity do not agree with each other and the circuit breakers were popping off all the time. Chris Nicholson dove underwater to connect the two emergency high capacity bilge pumps directly to the batteries which was the only way of assuring power and running the pumps.

Then came the shout, “Pumps are running.” Now the crew would have a chance to beat the incoming flow rate and get the water level down. Slowly but surely, the crew got the situation under control. Bekking was proud of his boys. “They did well, not just in this emergency situation, but also the way that they have sailed movistar so magnificently up to that moment.”

The crew made an emergency repair to the leaking keel box and sailed slowly towards Cape Horn, passing the scoring gate at 0500. They suspended racing and motored up the Beagle Channel towards Ushuaia, the capital of Argentina’s province of Tierra del Fuego, and the southernmost city in the world. Their shore crew was waiting to help repair the boat before sailing to the finish in Rio de Janeiro.

Past the Horn

On the other side of Cape Horn, a deadly combination of massive seas and patches of no wind lay in wait for the rest of the fleet. ABN AMRO ONE was the first to score points at Cape Horn, followed by Pirates of the Caribbean, Brasil 1, ABN AMRO TWO and Ericsson Racing Team.

The luck was with the back markers as they screamed up behind the leaders in a pattern that was fast becoming a familiar threat to Mike Sanderson at the head of the fleet. ABN AMRO TWO destroyed their code six spinnaker when the boat accelerated down an impressively large wave and the bow dug in, stopping the boat dead in her tracks.

Ericsson Racing Team closed to within seven miles of the kid’s yacht. A glimmer of hope in catching them led to a large spinnaker being hoisted at daybreak. “We took off down the first wave with such pace that you would swear blind that we were being propelled by something infinitely more powerful than the wind,” wrote Steve Hayles.

Fighting on the edge of control, the motion of the boat was so bad that the battery bank broke loose and the terminals began to short on some carbon structure inside the boat, staring a resin fire. The crew had to strip down the battery bank and lash each cell in place before wiring it all back up.

After 4,500 nautical miles, and 13 days at sea, only 67 miles separated the fleet from first to fifth position leaving it all to play for in the race up the coast of South America.

The final week of leg four of the Volvo Ocean Race from Wellington to Rio de Janeiro was set to be a drawn out affair. As day 14, March 4, dawned, Sebastien Josse and his young team onboard ABN AMRO TWO had worked their boat into second position. The fleet was now 168 nautical miles east of the Falkland Islands and 550 miles from the Argentinean coast, and, as predicted, the boats had closed together and now only 48 nm separated first from fifth.

movistar, meanwhile, had arrived in Ushuaia after being escorted all the way by a Chilean naval vessel. The shore crew were standing on the dockside when the boat came into view in the dead of night. Although exhausted, the crew were not ready to give up overall honours. “There is an outside chance of second place and we believe we can definitely make third place, “said skipper Bouwe Bekking. Farr Yacht Design, the designers of movistar were standing by to assist in any way they could.

Day 15, March 5, was one of those days that the new Volvo Open 70 was designed for. The fleet was reaching in breezes from 15 to 22 knots with boat speed nearly always matching the speed of the wind. The last 24 hours had been stress-free sailing for the first time in many days and the few sail changes that had to be made were tackled with fresh enthusiasm. But it wasn’t to last. By 1600 GMT, the fleet was sailing to windward and the wind ahead was forecast to become lighter as a high pressure ridge lay in their path.

movistar was craned back into the water on day 16 and motored back to the spot where she suspended racing three days before. As the team suspected, the fairing between the keel and the hull had broken off and that was how the water leaked into the boat. The team made temporary repairs in Ushuaia and set off towards Rio with their canting keel firmly locked in the centre of the boat. More repairs were planned in Brazil.

Last of the leg

For the rest of the fleet, it was another 24 hours of smooth sailing. The dreaded slow passage through the high pressure ridge did not materialise and the fleet kept up their speeds. The order remained unchanged, but ABN AMRO ONE was showing impressive speed, at times up to two knots faster than anyone else. Strategy was king and consuming the navigators’ attention.

“I can’t stop thinking about strategy,” wrote Steve Hayles, navigator of Ericsson in fifth place. “It keeps me awake when I should be sleeping and I switch off from everything including the guys around me as I try and make sure that we are doing everything possible to leverage a position where we can make a gain and make it stick.”

By day 17, March 7, the pressure was really on and it had been a back and forth battle. The fleet was now 800 miles from Rio, a distance that could be covered easily in a fast two day sail, but the light winds made a delay of at least three days seem inevitable.

Knut Frostad from Brasil 1 filed a complaint, “The brochure promised ice cold drinks, comfortable king size beds, exclusive gourmet meals and a service minded crew. On top of that, I was promised a Captain’s dinner at least once a week. Basically, it all looked like my dream holiday.

“And here I am! We are 1,000 miles from Rio. The king size bed is barely big enough for a kid and the one I was given has ripped apart. The food does not look or taste as on the brochure (apparently we are also running out of food in a couple of days), the staff is smelly and the couple of times I had dinner with the captain, he farted and wore no white uniform at all. The sun deck is quite big, but I still haven’t seen the sun. Basically I have been fouled.”

The racing became a grim game of snakes and ladders, a simple game where you work your way towards the finish, taking turns to throw the dice. “Yesterday,” explained Mike Sanderson from ABN AMRO ONE, “we slid down a nasty snake and lost 29 miles on the fleet and 39 miles to Brasil 1. Over the hours of darkness last night we gained back all that we had lost, plus some nice interest on a good ladder as we shot out to the biggest lead we have had for the whole leg.”

But apart from the frustrations with the weather, life onboard was good. “It is a far cry from the rigours of the Southern Ocean,” wrote Simon Fisher from ABN AMRO TWO. “We are sailing in shorts and t-shirts in the sun. The boat is now dry and you sleep well without being tossed around like a pancake in your bunk.”

But overnight, the fleet floundered in pockets of little or no wind. On day 18, Ericsson Racing Team was facing the possibility of finishing this leg in last place and onboard the stress was mounting. “We are at the back of the fleet and desperate to make gains,” wrote Steve Hayles. “The anxiety of sitting here in the nav station for hours at a time in little or no wind, almost praying for breeze, is enough to stop you eating and sleeping.”

movistar had left the Falkland Islands behind them and were heading north towards Rio, but over 1,000 miles behind the rest of the fleet.

On day 19, the breeze made a brief reappearance, but the seas were steep and choppy and the approach to Rio was fast becoming a bone-jarring affair. At the head of the fleet, Sanderson and the ABN AMRO ONE crew were watching the opposition carefully. Pirates of the Caribbean were 74 miles behind them, and Brasil 1 and ABN AMRO TWO were beginning a scrap that would last right up to the finish in Rio.

Progress on movistar was painfully slow as they sailed north in search of warmer weather. Their highlight in the next few days would be the day that Pepe Ribes allowed them to break into the leg of cured ham kindly given to the team by a Spanish icebreaker while they were in Ushuaia. “I am told,” wrote Mikey Joubert, “this is a very special gift to have received. We are also told by Pepe that there is a special ceremony required when opening and cutting the ham for the first time. He is keeping us all in mouth-water suspense when, every morning, he announces that ‘tomorrow will be the day’. If he does not hurry up, he will wake up to find a large piece missing and some very content people on deck.”

Frustrations

Day 20, March 10 and the closing stages of the leg were slow going and anything but straight forward and simple. A high pressure cell ahead of the fleet threatened to let ABN AMRO ONE through, but trap Pirates of the Caribbean, while the remaining three boats could then catch up. On movistar, Pepe Ribes had still not let the crew open their ham. He said that he did not want them scoffing themselves full and then throwing it up again in the rough weather. Perhaps day 21 would be the day?

Pirates became caught in the high pressure cell and were stopped dead in their tracks. Brasil 1 pounced and immediately took second place, but only by a mile. ABN AMRO TWO was now just nine miles behind. Ericsson had yet another spell of bad luck when she was hit by lightning, taking a direct strike to the top of the mast, which, to the amazement of the crew, resulted in flames. “We have destroyed most of the electronics on the boat and we are without any sailing instruments, navigation computers, radar, VHF and other nav gear. The sextant has been broken out just in case, but no need to use it yet,” wrote skipper Neal McDonald.

Finish

And then it was all over. ABN AMRO ONE finished the leg in first place, focussed and foot perfect. They drifted across the finish line at 1823 local time after 20 days, one hour, 49 minutes and three seconds to claim first place. The team collected 3.5 points for passing the Cape Horn scoring gate first, and seven points for the leg win, bringing their total to 49 points and putting them solidly at the top of the overall scoreboard.

In quick succession the next three boats crossed the finish. After 6,700 nautical miles of racing, the battle for second and third podium positions raged until the very last moments. In the last hours of the leg, Pirates of the Caribbean regained second position to cross the line at 0406 local time followed just 30 minutes later by the young guns on ABN AMRO TWO. Local heroes, Brasil 1, missed a podium position by the slimmest of margins, finishing 25 minutes behind ABN AMRO TWO, having not seen them get past in the poor visibility on the approaches to their home port.

And then Ericsson Racing Team crossed the line at 1612 local time after 20 days, 17 hours and 42 minutes at sea. It was a leg that this tired crew would rather forget. Perhaps they will have luck on their side next time?

Eventually movistar came thought to Rio, having had some days of complete calm, once recording just three miles in the six hour position reporting schedule.

On arrival changes were in the wind. Poor performing Ericsson had a soul searching team meeting and skipper Neal McDonald stepped aside to allow John Kostecki, their In Port guru and the winner of the last race, other crew changes were planned as well as a revitalised sail programme.

Pirates, movistar and Brasil 1 all made planned crew changes, while the two ABN AMRO boats were fettled by their shore team and confidently awaited the next action.

Everyone sweltered in the Rio heat.

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