SAILING/Volvo Race Diary:IT LOOKS like I'll be celebrating St Patrick's Day rounding the notorious Cape Horn. It's a familiar story for me, as a few years ago I spent the day in the same way when I broke the world record on board Cheyenne, along with Damian (Foxall) and the late Steve Fossett. This time we've smuggled a couple of bottles of Guinness on board, so we'll raise a glass to all back home.
Conditions are getting pretty wild on board Green Dragon as the Southern Ocean starts to live up to its reputation. We’ve been surfing waves some seven metres high and are facing winds gusting up to 50 knots.
The slamming of the hull has been unbearable. It would be very easy to break the boat in these fierce seas, which would be disastrous down here, miles from anywhere. So we’ve had to rein it in a little, to ensure the safety of the boat and the crew.
It’s all been a sudden change as, until a few days ago, we were experiencing really flat seas in not a lot of wind. The sun was shining through patches of blue sky – unheard of in this part of the world.
It’s been quite cold for the last week or so. The sea temperature is about 80C in 20 knots of wind chill – that’s about –6C. The whole crew has been wearing survival suits since we spotted a couple of icebergs a few days ago. They are a pretty cool sight the first time you see them, but I always get quite nervous in the vicinity of icebergs. At the time visibility was less than 200-300 metres and we were sailing along at 20 to 25 knots. If you can’t see them during the day, you almost certainly will not pick them up during the night and they don’t always show up on the radar. We would almost certainly sink if we hit one at the speeds we travel at, but thankfully we escaped unscathed.
To try to keep us away from known icebergs, the race organisers put in place ice gates which we had to cross to force us to stay further north. Our route to Cape Horn would’ve been so much shorter if we could’ve disregarded the gate, but I can see the logic of having these precautions.
Although it’s very cold and wet down below, sleeping conditions have been quite good over the last few days. There’s a lot more space, as we’ve eaten 31 days worth of food (over 400kg) since we left China over a month ago. However, food is a sore point right now as it’s going to get very scarce on Green Dragon towards the end of our trip. We’ve packed for 40 days, but it’s now looking like this leg will take 45 days or more. We have no choice but to start rationing the food pretty soon – just to add to the fun.
On a positive note, we’ve had a huge albatross following us for the last few days. It’s probably the largest one I’ve seen and it’s really been quite magical. We’ve named him Airbus. We sailors get very superstitious about these birds as we’re probably among the few people to get to see them in their natural habitat. In the last race we supported an awareness campaign, as thousands are killed by long-line fishing every year, to the point that they are now endangered. It would be tragic if we allowed these magnificent creatures to become extinct.
We’re all in good spirits on board the Dragon despite the long leg. Conversation is still flowing – it’s amazing what we can find to talk about! We look forward to emails from family for news from home.
Getting to Cape Horn in good shape and in a top racing position will be a win in itself. All going well, we could be rounding Cape Horn within 4-5 hours of the leaders. Then it’s game on with just a 2,200-mile sprint to the finish in Rio.
History would dictate that the leg can be won or lost on this section, so, if we’re within striking distance and the weather materialises, we could be in a for a good finish.
