On Wednesday afternoon, the leading team Bunel tried the inside and thus closest to the St Helena High, while the Danish team Vestas Wind was on the outside: the seven boats in the Volvo Ocean Race have formed up for their approach to Cape Town. After 18 days at sea, Bouwe Bekking's Team Brunel, which was the slowest boat in the fleet at 10.2 knots, occupies the most northerly course in the West-East Passage. The Danes recently made up ground on the outer lane. Only 22 nautical miles behind the Dutch, Ian Walker's Team Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing recently closed the gap to the front runners again. The Spanish team Mapfre, classified as co-favourites before the start of the race, is still struggling to catch up 216 nautical miles behind the leading boat, but has now built up a 60-nautical-mile lead over the SCA women. The Spaniards around skipper Iker Martinez had pushed the 24-hour record a little further upwards with 364 nautical miles and also achieved the highest top speed on this leg at 24 knots.
Anbord reporter Corinna Halloran from Team SCA found time on Wednesday for a philosophical greeting from on board: "Forest Gump once wisely said: 'Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get'. That has never been truer than today. Except that our chocolate on board has now turned to mush. But it still tastes good and we still love it. It's just been a bit stuffy and dirty over the last 24 hours... Last night, in the best of moods, we decided to head south-west. Our own personal rain cloud caught us and sucked in the last breath of wind. So the beautiful manoeuvre was rained off, both figuratively and actually. In the morning we were 80 nautical miles behind Mapfre. At noon, another 49 nautical miles had been added. I'm not sure if the word disappointment accurately describes the mood on board. It felt like someone had kicked us in the stomach. It wasn't an easy day for us today. But we didn't allow ourselves to hang our heads. We performed 100 per cent under the given sailing conditions. So as I said before: don't cross us off the list. Don't expect anything less than the best from us. Don't stop believing in us. There are still thousands of nautical miles ahead of us, and the newly added ice gate in the South Polar could cause the fleet to tighten up again in the coming days. We are fighting, and that is the most important thing. In the end, you never know what chocolates will be waiting for us tomorrow..."
What undoubtedly awaits the teams is the Southern Ocean. They will enter the inhospitable southern latitudes on their south-westerly course to Cape Town and are preparing for this. On board Mapfre, this is not without discomfort, as the team is having problems charging the batteries. On Wednesday morning, the alarm on board went off, indicating a charge level of less than 30 per cent. The crew had not yet been able to find the cause of the problems and were already thinking about stopping ashore for repairs. However, the batteries could then be charged in an isolated state. On-board reporter Francisco Vignale suspects a connection with a water ingress the day before. The system worked again in the meantime, but the team knows that if there are problems again in the coming days, the consequences could be drastic. Vignale wrote: "If the problems occur again, they could have very, very serious consequences in the tough conditions ahead. We are preparing for tough sailing and have thoroughly checked the mast and winches again. As Iker says so well: 'Anything can happen in the south'. Whoever is best prepared will achieve a better result."
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
