SAILING VOLVO OCEAN RACE:HERO TO zero, taking the elevator from the penthouse to the basement, all the usual clichés have been well and truly aired over the last few days on the good ship Groupama 4. In less than two days, we went from fleet leader to last on the water and dropped 600 miles in the process.

As the Volvo Ocean Race crosses the Equator today, we are around 300 miles behind the two leaders, Puma and Telefonica, who have clung to each other since we left the Mediterranean just over a week ago.

It all boils down to the gamble in the hunt for wind when we split away and hugged the coast of Africa.

It must have looked good on the race tracker as our lead built steadily even though we had fairly light airs. The others headed west, also into light airs but on a promise of bigger breeze.

Our gamble was that we gain valuable miles southwards plus hopefully find the normally reliable trade winds that have been missing this week.

We put our money on the table and took our chances.

For a while, early on, it looked like Chris Nicholson and the lads on Camper with Emirate Team New Zealand were going to follow us. Then they hesitated and instead opted to chase the other pair to the West. The Kiwis have paid a price as they are half the distance behind but still benefited when the wind filled in further out to sea.

And when the breeze arrived, it was directly on the beam, perfect for fast reaching conditions. All three were soon averaging 20-plus knots since Friday and our seemingly massive lead soon evaporated.

The tables were turned on us but we could see it coming as the weather charts settled and we knew our fate from pretty early on. We’re more than a little way behind – we’re a long way behind but we were mentally prepared for it.

Having paid a pretty dramatic toll for taking the African route, we are now gaining slightly as the front-runners reach the Doldrums and begin to slow down. We’re now faster as we approach from astern but we will in turn slow so a concertina effect will be apparent. We may be able to claw back some of the miles but it’ll be long and tedious.

But it’s starting to look like the Doldrums zone isn’t too bad this year and the crossing could be relatively fast. And once past the Equator, we’ll be into the South Atlantic where we might be able to make some huge gains depending on the weather around the St Helena or South Atlantic high-pressure system.

We’re hoping that we may be able to reel in the others in pure boat-speed terms. Again, the gains could also be made by the others so we won’t really know our prospects until the weekend or early next week when we pass Cabo Frio close to Rio De Janeiro as we route southwards from the mandatory waypoint of the Fernando de Noronha islands just South of the Equator.

In the meantime, crossing that famous latitude will provide the context for an ocean tradition. The “visit” of King Neptune along with his sidekick Queen Codfish is being eagerly anticipated on our boat this year as two equatorial virgins prepare to make their first crossing.

This is going to be the ceremony of all ceremonies. The two unfortunates will be subjected to some horrific (though fairly harmless) tasks that are likely to involve anything from eating a mix of left-over food mixed with bilge-water and perhaps a dead fish to having their heads shaved and covered in stuff that will take several showers to fully treat.

It’ll be a highly entertaining distraction from the routine of non-stop racing and our deficit to the front of the pack.

Overall, we are still very happy with our boat. In the build-up to the launch of Groupama 4, we sailed Ericsson 4, the winner of the last race and holder of the world record for a 24-hour run by a mono-hull yacht. Yet even this latest generation design that we now have is noticeably faster.

The next week to 10 days will also allow us to see how all the boats perform in a range of wind angles and wind-speeds, vital intelligence for judging their potential later in the race.

But for now, we have to accept where we are and remind ourselves that for the last week we’ve had amazing sailing conditions – flat water and 10 to 15 knots of breeze. If you wanted to cross the Atlantic to somewhere like the Caribbean, this would be the weather you’d hope for.

That’s about to change though: it’s very wet on deck as we surf along at 20 knots again so all the hatches are closed. As we near the Equator, it’s becoming very hot and humid so below deck is like a sauna.

Within a week, it’ll be getting cooler again – and faster.

In conversation with David Branigan