Volvo Ocean Race: The Southern Ocean casts its shadow ahead

Tatjana Pokorny

· 19.03.2018

Volvo Ocean Race: The Southern Ocean casts its shadow ahead

Photo: VOR

Stage 7, Day 3

The pace of the fleet heading for the Southern Ocean is picking up. So far, the comeback of frontrunner Vestas 11th Hour Racing has been promising

On the third day after the start of the stage off Auckland, the seven teams are already thundering towards the Southern Ocean and Cape Horn at speeds of 22 or 23 knots. The Danish-American comeback team Vestas 11th Hour Racing has now taken the lead ahead of the overall leader, the Spanish team Mapfre, and Simeon Tienpont's Dutch team AkzoNobel. After around 55 hours, the first six boats were only just under six nautical miles apart, with positions changing frequently.

Photo: VOR Looking ahead from the Brunel stern: it's getting colder, windier and wilder as we head south

Spread out from west to east: this is how the teams have positioned themselves for the "descent" into the Southern Ocean. The leading team Vestas 11th Hour Racing sails at the easternmost point

Photo: VOR/Screenshot Spread out from west to east: this is how the teams have positioned themselves for the "descent" into the Southern Ocean. The leading team Vestas 11th Hour Racing sails at the easternmost point

Photo: VOR/Screenshot Stage 7, day 3: the intermediate results from Tuesday morning

Charlie Enright's comeback team Vestas 11th Hour Racing has positioned itself to the east of the fleet and thus closer to Cape Horn. The same applies to Bouwe Bekking's Team Brunel, which had led the group for a while, but once again showed a slight speed deficit in a direct comparison of all boats on Tuesday.

What the skippers said before the start about the queen's stage from Auckland to Itajaí in Brazil

As the only skipper in the fleet, Dee Caffari has already written two short blogs from on board. Her summary after the first two days: "What a great 48 hours! We're speeding down the coast of New Zealand, with the fleet breathing down our necks. The sun is shining and the land fades into a distant memory. The wind is up and down, still a bit fickle. But we're trying to defend our leading position."

Less than three days ago, the crews left Auckland in T-shirts. Now you can see from the sailors, like here on board Brunel, that it is getting colder every day. The latitudes of the "roaring forties" have long since been reached. The "roaring fifties" lie ahead

Photo: VOR Less than three days ago, the crews left Auckland in T-shirts. Now you can see from the sailors, like here on board Brunel, that it is getting colder every day. The latitudes of the "roaring forties" have long since been reached. The "roaring fifties" lie ahead

This was not entirely successful, as Caffari's team Turn the Tide on Plastic has currently fallen back to sixth place, but is only 5.9 nautical miles behind Vestas. Caffari writes: "The water is cascading over the deck. It's definitely getting colder. But we can't complain about it yet."

The real tests are yet to come as the boats approach the ice limit set up by the race organisers, which, just before Cape Horn, extends down to about 58 degrees latitude and is nowhere higher than 50 degrees latitude over the entire course. The fleet is already sailing in the "Roaring Forties" and will soon reach the "Furious Fifties". Dongfeng skipper Charles Caudrelier in particular is likely to have started this leg with mixed feelings: On the one hand, his team wants to get closer to the Spanish leaders and former training partners with a formidable result. On the other hand, the Frenchman will be thinking back to the last two editions of the Volvo Ocean Race with gloomy thoughts: In both, his teams suffered a broken mast on this section.

Tatjana Pokorny

Sports reporter

Tatjana “tati” Pokorny is the author of nine books. As a reporter for Europe's leading sailing magazine YACHT, she also works as a correspondent for the German Press Agency (DPA), the Hamburger Abendblatt and other national and international media. In summer 2024, Tatjana will be reporting from Marseille on her ninth consecutive Olympic Games. Other core topics have been the America's Cup since 1992, the Ocean Race since 1993, the Vendée Globe and other national and international regattas and their protagonists. Favorite discipline: Portraits of and interviews with sailing personalities. When she started out in sports journalism, she was still intensively involved with basketball and other sports, but sailing quickly became her main focus. The reason? The declared optimist says: “There is no other sport like it, no other sport with such interesting and intelligent personalities, no other sport so diverse, no other sport so full of energy, strength and ideas. Sailing is like a constantly refreshing declaration of love for life."

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Volvo Ocean Race: The Southern Ocean casts its shadow ahead

Tatjana Pokorny

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