MAKING WAVES:We're about to move into overdrive as we prepare to complete the second leg from Cape Town to Abu Dhabi this afternoon

SO THIS race is about to go into overdrive mode. From today, our schedule will be hectic as the Volvo Ocean Race programme comes to terms with “the real world” as Puma’s Ken Read put it last week.

Finally, we’re going to complete leg two from Cape Town to Abu Dhabi this afternoon (early morning, Irish time) with a 98-mile sprint into the Emirati port following the interruption to the leg due to piracy concerns.

With the fresh Shamal wind likely to favour us, we’re hoping for some good results so we can build on our third place overall and close the gap on leaders Telefonica and Camper.

We only get 20 per cent of normal leg points for this short stage but still, we’ll take these now as it could make all the difference in a few months’ time when the 39,000-mile course reaches its finish in Galway Bay.

We have 18 points to close the gap to Chris Nicholson and the Kiwis in second place while Read is just 11 points behind us in fourth and hungry to make up for their leg-one dismasting. Still, we’re about five days behind the original timeframe and that’s creating knock-on effects for us all.

After reaching our Indian Ocean “secret safe-haven” a week ago, the five boats currently racing were loaded onto a cargo ship and delivered to UAE-waters yesterday. Originally, the plan was to race from somewhere like Muscat to get a longer stage but logistics ashore dictated otherwise.

On arrival at that destination after more than two weeks at sea, although a “dry-island” the airport bar didn’t get much of a look-in as all 55 of us gathered for the flight out to homes and families around the world or in my case, direct to Abu Dhabi to Suzy and the kids.

Our journey back to the boats on Monday night was easier. Driving out from the thriving city of Abu Dhabi, past the spectacular sight of Dubai, we arrived to the Eastern Emirate of Sharjah to meet the ship carrying the fleet.

All around the decks guarding the topsides, razor-wire was coiled as a deterrent to pirates attempting to board. My crew-mate Brad (Marsh) met two Dutch guys walking down the deck, each carrying long Peli Cases. “I take it those aren’t your guitars?” he inquired. “No,” came the reply. “But they do have a tune when we get them going.”

There was little sign of the infamous Somali pirates on the five-day passage to the Gulf of Oman though one small vessel appeared to head for the ship. Standard procedure is to make a course alteration to test the intentions of the approaching boat. Initially it appeared to head for the ship before veering away so it was probably quite innocent.

But on inspection yesterday, we discovered a crack in our hull, close to the keel but not where we might have expected, in the bow where the constant slamming produces huge stress.

We weren’t allowed to send our shore team and boat builders to work on the problem as the period spent on board the transport ship is classified as a pitstop so only the sailing crew is allowed work on a fix. That said, there was some grumbling from the other teams who were concerned we might push our luck and attempt a bigger repair. So we offered full access to witness the work that was scheduled to take place between midnight and 5am yesterday. Needless to add, there weren’t any takers and we took photographs of the work as our record of compliance.

But as soon as we arrive in Abu Dhabi this afternoon, we’ll be lifting-out for four days and the next best thing to a full refit as the compressed time schedule will allow. Tracking down the cause of the cracking will be a priority though its location directly beneath our battery bank suggests these could be causing a pressure point so we’re not unduly concerned at this stage.

But aside from having next weekend off, we have to be back in the water by next Tuesday to begin the In-Port racing on Friday week for another round of points and the start of leg three to Sanya in China the following day.

That leg will begin by racing the reverse of today’s 98-mile sprint back to Sharjah and the cargo ship with the Dutch guards and a passage back to the safe haven.

It’ll be almost three weeks before we’re back into ocean-racing mode again and desperately trying to make up lost time to reach China early enough to give our boats and equipment a full check and service.

In conversation with David Branigan