A huge wave washes down the deck of Green Dragon in the Southern Ocean (Guo Chuan/Green Dragon)
Guo Chan / Green Dragon
Qingdao to Rio de Janiero; China to Brazil; northern to southern hemisphere; winter to summer; Yellow Sea to the Atlantic; New Zealand to starboard, Cape Horn to port; crossing the Pacific north to south and east to west; 12,300 miles; two scoring gates and the leg points.
Leg 5 was longer than any previous Whitbread or Volvo Ocean Race leg and it was expected to take up to 40 days.
The leg started with drama as Telefonica Blue hit a rock off the harbour wall just before the start gun, and had to return to the dock to get hauled out and fixed, eventually starting 19 hours late.
Meanwhile, Ericsson 3 finally completed Leg 4 - having sailed up from Taiwan where the boat was repaired - then pit-stopped in Qingdao for two hours to load gear and new crew.
Ericsson 3 started with a seven-hour deficit on the rest of the fleet - but that was now just three boats - Ericsson 4, PUMA and Green Dragon - because Delta Lloyd and Telefonica Black were being shipped straight to Rio after the damage they had experienced in Leg 4.
The fleet blasted south, into and then down the Pacific, on a northerly wind that slowly shifted into the north-east trade winds. Ericsson 3 and Telefonica Blue both caught and passed Green Dragon, as Ian Walker and his team struggled for speed.
Ericsson 4 led the fleet into what was a short and relatively painless third go-around with the Doldrums. PUMA, Ericsson 3 and Telefonica Blue were lined up in her wake.
They were soon engaged in a match race that would last for the next five days.
The fleet emerged into the easterly trade winds which, in the Pacific, divide two separate bands of 'Double Doldrums'. The sailing was straight-forward, but the road ahead was not. Eventually, everyone chose a route east of Fiji, but the difficult sailing in the second Doldrums belt left them unable to get east of Fiji without an expensive tack.
Green Dragon was looking good in her easterly berth, while it was a grim scenario for Telefonica Blue, with very light wind predicted to the west of the islands. Bouwe Bekking had a spectacular solution - sailing between the main islands of Viti Levu and Vanua Levu, down a badly-charted channel strewn with coral reefs. PUMA peeled away from Ericsson 3 and joined Telefonica Blue on her Fijian adventure.
The Ericsson boats stayed with Plan A tacked to starboard to join the Dragon, and all three beat upwind round the eastern side of the island, while 100 miles to the west, PUMA and Telefonica Blue struggled through the channel.
On the morning of the 28th February everyone was clear into open water, and it looked good for PUMA and Telefonica Blue, up to first and third respectively. But they were now 100 miles to the west of their main opposition.
And slowly the eastern boats crept ahead. Ericsson 4 were leading the fleet south into lighter breeze. With the scoring gate at 36 degrees S looming, the pressure was on.
Ericsson 4 took the maximum points by 32 minutes from Ericsson 3, who was 10 minutes clear of PUMA. Telefonica Blue beat Green Dragon for fourth.
Barely had the scoring gate points been awarded, when the biggest strategic play of the leg began. Ericsson 3 sailed through the gate and - completely counter-intuitively - tacked to go back north-east. The problem was a huge area of high pressure, blocking the conventional route south into the strong westerly breezes of the Southern Ocean, but aboard Ericsson 3, navigator Aksel Magdahl had a plan.
Only a few hours passed before everyone else accepted Magdahl's analysis that the conventional route to the south of the high pressure wouldn't work. They all turned east to go north of the weather system - but the real key to Magdahl's plan was a low pressure, spinning up to the north-east. Ericsson 3 hit the centre of the low on the afternoon of the 6th March, and quickly broke through into the strong northerly wind on the other side.
By the following morning it was clear that Ericsson 3 had pulled off a brilliant coup. As she blasted down to a position east of PUMA, Green Dragon and Ericsson 4 she was over 100 miles ahead. Telefonica Blue was even worse off as the most southerly boat, and the problems compounded when her forestay broke.
The leaders cleared the second ice gate and turned south for Cape Horn. By the morning of the 15th March, Ericsson 3 had seen their lead crushed from almost 300 miles to just over 30, as the fleet charged towards Cape Horn in 'proper' Southern Ocean conditions.
PUMA took a bad wave and smashed her steering wheel; Ericsson 4 lost their steering gear and wiped out at 36 knots, then had problems with the keel hydraulics.
Ericsson 3 finally led around Cape Horn and through the second scoring gate. Ericsson 4 was just a couple of hours behind, with PUMA following in third later that evening, Green Dragon the next morning, and Telefonica Blue 36 hours later.
Heading north through the Le Maire Strait, Ericsson 4 got to within six miles of the leader. There was still 2000 miles to Rio de Janeiro, and the fleet were made to suffer through fickle conditions for every one of them.
Finally, veteran skipper Magnus Olsson led his young Nordic team home on the 26th March - exhausted, relieved, and very, very happy about one of the most spectacular comebacks the race had ever seen.
They were chased all the way by the overall race leader, Ericsson 4, and then PUMA, with Green Dragon and Telefonica Blue concluding an epic leg a couple of days later.
USEFUL LINKS
Download the Leg 5 crew list (PDF 79kb).
You can replay the leg 5 highlights on .TV here