Joao Signorini steers amongst doldrum like clouds in the Southern Ocean, on leg 5 of the Volvo Ocean Race, from Qingdao to Rio de Janeiro. Image copyright Guy Salter/Ericsson 4/Volvo Ocean Race.
by Torben Grael (skipper)
At last, sailing on Southern Ocean conditions. The rookies must have been wondering if all those stories about it were true. But now, with 1000 miles to go looks that we are all going to have a good taste of it.
On a leg as long like this, it feels nice to be fast reaching towards the objective rather then pointing somewhere else to avoid light spots or even going upwind. Yes it is bumpy and quite difficult to type this thing, but so far everyone is happy that the miles to the cape are shrinking faster.
It will be a sprint with the boats quite close together specially considering the amount of days at sea (29 now) already.
Then after the most famous cape in the world, if things go as planned of course, we will be going north for good, up the South American coast and finally into Rio. It seems quite far away still.
Arriving there sooner will save us from eventually rationing food and give us a slightly bigger stopover, which in my case not being back since the start is a big plus. So much to do, so little time. Stopovers this time are way too short. And with three days dedicated to warm up, in-port and pro-am, even shorter. No good.
Fair winds.
Volvo Ocean Race
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