"When 'Azzam' bolts through the non-periodic waves of the southern Indian Ocean, you can feel her carbon fibre hull flexing with every blow," writes Abu Dhabi reporter Matt Knighton. "When I asked my crewmate to describe the noise below deck, he replied: It's like being in an upside-down bathtub being hit with a hammer."
The seven teams last sailed on an easterly course with around 23 knots of wind. Abu Dhabi was still narrowly in the lead, but had to overcome a minor crisis last night: "Suddenly the bilge alarm went off," writes Knighton. "Seawater in the forecastle! Parko and Daryl climbed through the forward bulkhead and found themselves knee-deep in rubbish and water. A dewatering fitting for the G3 had come loose and drained into the forward section of the boat where we throw our rubbish. With the bouncing carbon hull underneath them, some crew members grabbed buckets and drained the foredeck in 30 minutes. In the end, it was just a small repair that looked much worse at first."
The rough conditions are also causing problems for the other teams. "After two days of beating, and I mean beating, on the wind with a boat flatter than your bottom, I feel significantly smaller than I did 48 hours ago," writes Alvimedica reporter Amory Ross. "It's a constant shaking, bumping, back breaking. After taking off from a wave, it pushes you back onto the deck so hard when you land that you actually feel vertical compression."
Tough conditions: On board with Team SCA
The conditions should improve the further north the boats go, but probably only briefly, as there is a tropical storm ahead. "Tro-tro-tropical storm? Is that a drinkable fruit cocktail?" asks Stefan Coppers, Team Brunel reporter. "'A tropical storm is terrible,' replied our Belgian Louis Balcaen with a sour face, and I realised that I was obviously not the only one not looking forward to this encounter. On the navigation screen, our storm expert Bouwe Bekking pointed to a red dot exactly on our route and said: 'Red = 60 knots of wind'."
