Guo Chuan/Green Dragon/Volvo Ocean Race
Neal McDonald had done five of these races, and reckoned days two and three of any leg were always the worst. It was the transition between shore and sea life that was hardest ...
Wednesday 26 August 2009 10:30 GMT
Green Dragon's watch captain Neal McDonald had done five of these races, and reckoned days two and three of any leg were always the worst. It was the transition between shore and sea life that was hardest.
On the first day the adrenaline was pumping and no one slept much anyway, and by day three the crew was getting into the new rhythm. It was the bit in between that was tough, and on this leg it was not being made any easier by the conditions.
Rick Deppe wrote from PUMA ... "My own theory is that people are still recovering from the physical and mental toll taken on them by Leg 5, there's been no real downtime for months now, so being out here and going between zero and three knots is understandably frustrating."
Ericsson 4's Kiwi watch captain Stu Bannatyne wrote of his own concerns: "In Rio, there was barely enough time to regain weight, let alone any conditioning or strength lost on the previous leg.
"This means that most of the sailors on Leg 6 will still be at sub-optimum physically. Add to this the travelling for the guys that flew home from Rio and it makes for a tough turn around.
"Leg 6 will also be tough as we make many sail changes in hot weather and then at the end will likely be in freezing cold temperatures as we approach Boston."
Eventually, the south-easterly trade winds filled in across the fleet, Telefonica Blue holding her lead as they did so, and the pack settled into the chase in a tight group.
These are some of the most stable winds on the planet and, with almost 3,000 miles to go through the south and north-east trade winds, the crews finally eased back into the familiar, comforting pattern of the watch system.
McDonald had explained that no one now considered it efficient to change the whole watch at the same time. The old system had been to split the crew into two sets of four, with each working four hours on and four hours off. But it meant that all the knowledge of the wind conditions, the sea state and the fast sailing set-up left the deck and went below at the same time.
Such discontinuity was inefficient as the new watch struggled to sail the boat quickly while they familiarised themselves with the conditions.
The system had begun to change three or four races previously, with the crew now paired up into four watches of two men, with the watch changing every two hours. Continuity was now ensured by the new watch joining two men who had already been on deck for a couple of hours.
It was a rhythm that, once established, the crews could maintain for days or weeks, as required. But while McDonald may have been happy with a watch system he had seen develop through his five-race career, he was a lot less happy with Green Dragon's performance as they raced for the points at the scoring gate.
Second at Cabo Frio, they gradually, painfully, slipped backwards.
The trade-wind sailing was straight-line reaching, the type of sailing that required the righting moment that Green Dragon so badly lacked.
Spanish Castle to White Night will be published in September by Dakini Books.
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Volvo Ocean Race website columnist and author, Mark Chisnell