Rick Deppe/PUMA Ocean Racing/Volvo Ocean Race
It wasn't until the sun rose on the morning of 24 January - to reveal a heaving, grey and white flecked sea - that Jonathan Swain, realised quite how rough it had become ...
Tuesday 7 July, 2009, 15:30 GMT
For several days, the forecasts had been predicting a storm, and as the leaders continued north, conditions began to deteriorate. But it wasn't until the sun rose on the morning of 24 January - to reveal a heaving, grey and white flecked sea - that Telefonica Blue's watch captain, Jonathan Swain, realised quite how rough it had become.
They were west of the Philippine island of Luzon, so they headed inshore where the seas were calmer - but relief was short-lived. Luzon could only provide shelter from the howling north-easterly monsoon wind for so long. Soon they would reach the northern tip, where they could go on, or wait in shelter and lose their lead.
The Kuroshio, or Black Tide, is a notorious warm water current that flows northwards from the Luzon Strait, past Taiwan and on towards Japan. In January it struggles against the north-east monsoon wind which blows at 30 knots or more on an average of one day in every three, but which, on this particular day, happened to be gusting in excess of 50 knots.
The result was the same as it is anywhere that wind fights current, from the Needles Channel to the Agulhas Bank - extremely rough water. But Swain recalled afterwards that there was no committee meeting aboard Telefonica Blue. And even though skipper, Bouwe Bekking, was prostrate in a bunk after tearing a muscle - damaged hurling gear across the boat during a tack - he was adamant. They were going to go on: out into the storm.
The other skippers felt no less compelled to follow - while there was a race, they would sail. One after another they ventured into the Luzon Strait. PUMA was the first to suffer - she snapped her boom in much the same place as Green Dragon had on Leg 2. Skipper, Ken Read, turned his boat downwind and sought shelter - and once again PUMA's shore manager, Neil Cox, got busy on the phone.
About six hours later, Gerd-Jan Poortman found himself hauling down a badly ripped mainsail with his team-mates, and Delta Lloyd turned back towards shelter to repair it. Less than an hour after that, Green Dragon followed. A structural frame in the bow had shattered. Engineer, Tom Braidwood, finally had something to fix - though he wasn't the slightest bit happy about it.
Meanwhile, Telefonica Black's navigator, Roger Nilson, had guided them into the shelter of a small bay to change their mainsail for the much smaller storm trysail. Once that was done they set off into the Strait. It made no difference. Two hours after they left the shelter of the Luzon coast, Telefonica Black came off a wave and landed with an apocalyptic bang.
They immediately turned the boat downwind, and started looking for the damage. When they found it, it was clear that they were going no further without repairs. A substantial crack had opened in the hull. They kept sailing downwind, while Nilson contacted the Race Office and his shore crew.
Still at the back of the fleet, the crews aboard Ericsson 4 and Ericsson 3 had been able to watch as one boat after another had been picked off. Ericsson 4's watch captain, Stu Banantyne, related afterwards that they had talked about waiting, even before Telefonica Blue had pushed on. So when the carnage started, it was an easy decision to haul down the mainsail and jog slowly up the coast with just the storm jib up, tracking behind their sister-ship, who had adopted the same approach.
Bannatyne explained their strategy. Ever since the team's American meteorologist, Chris Bedford, had done their original study of the new course, they had known that this leg was potentially the most hazardous the race had ever embarked on. They knew that while they were unlikely to secure a race winning points margin on the way to Qingdao, they could potentially damage the boat so badly that they would be unable to start the leg to Rio - losing them any chance of the overall prize.
So when they won the in-port race in Singapore and further extended their lead, the decision was confirmed - getting to Qingdao was the absolute priority, they would happily accept a third or fourth place to ensure that they made it.
Spanish Castle to White Night will be published in September by Dakini Books.
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Gabriele Olivo/Telefonica Blue/Volvo Ocean Race