Volvo Ocean Race: 65kts on final approach to Horn
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World.com/nz 28 Mar 2018 19:34 NZDT
28 March 2018
Leg 7 from Auckland to Itajai, day 08 on board Brunel. 26 March, © Yann Riou / Volvo Ocean Race
The Southern Ocean is proving to be a severe test of the crews remaining on Leg 7 of the Volvo Ocean Race as they close in on Cape Horn.
Simon Fisher, navigator on Vestas 11th Hour Racing, Bouwe Bekking, skipper of Team Brunel give their thoughts on the sad loss of John Fisher on SHK Scallywag.
SHK Scallywag is shown as having suspended racing and is heading for Chile. Their destination has not been announced however it is likely to be Puerto Montt where Camper and Abu Dhabi suspended racing during the 2011/12 Volvo Ocean Race. The town has a population of 180,000 and is the southern most city with a airport and roading.
Latest from navigator Simon Fisher onboard Vestas 11th Hour Racing:
After yesterday's devastating news we are racing towards Cape Horn with heavy hearts. Although we must try to keep our focus on the racing I can speak for everyone on board when I say that right now all our thoughts and prayers are with John, his family, his team mates and friends.
The Southern Ocean has been especially tough this year, it has been more relentless and unforgiving than I can ever remember. With yesterday's tragedy these final days in the Pacific will be that much tougher still.
In the last week it feels if we have been battered by storm after storm. And yet another squall is never far away. As the clouds that bring the squalls roll by we are hit by 35-40 knot gusts not to mention a mixture of hail and snow. The novelty of making snowballs has long since worn off. This is sailing at its most extreme.
On deck it is only two degrees, the water temperature a little warmer at five. It feels like winter down here and the nights have been long. Everyone is tired as the relentless speed and lack of sleep after countless manoeuvres has worn everyone down. Their resilience is impressive though as they steadily battle on.
As we brace ourselves for the final few days of strong winds Cape Horn cannot come soon enough.
Cheers,
Si Fi.
From Bouwe Bekking (Team Azkonobel):
We are deeply shocked by the loss of John Fisher, known to us sailors as Fish. Our thoughts are with his family and of course the Scallywag crew. There hasn't been a moment since we heard that I didn't wake up thinking about him and made my fear of losing an own crew member even worse. We are riding on the edge over here.
We are sailing in conditions where at home I would be afraid that the roof tiles will be blown off the house. And yes, we got caught out as well. Early this morning we had a squall of 54 knots, the gennaker was still up, managing to keep the boat on its feet, but with a heart rate of 190. The squalls are numerous. We get one every half an hour and most give an increase of an average of 5 knots above the normal wind speed. This afternoon a black cloud all of a sudden gave us 65 knots – and yes we had a massive wipe-out. Luckily everybody was lined on. As it was at watch change we had two people fully dressed to help furl the gennaker and off we were again with the 3 reefs in the main and small staysail, still doing 25+ boat speed. The water surface was a complete whiteout. Scary, yes, but fascinating.
Not much sleep for everybody as we are running full standby watches, which means an hour after your watch in your sailing gear and then two hours in your bunk, followed by one hour before your next watch. We are looking forward to some normal sailing, without squalls, so we can get some sleep!
Cheers,
Bouwe.