Green Dragon see Icebergs in the Southern Ocean, on leg 5 of the Volvo Ocean Race, from Qingdao to Rio de Janeiro. Image copyright Guo Chuan/Green Dragon/Volvo Ocean Race.
by Ian Walker (skipper)
It’s 2.30am local time and I am just boiling some water for hot drinks.
'Ian is the radar on? We can see some objects in the water?' These were the exact words of Animal (Andrew Mclean) being a typically understated Kiwi – anybody else would have run down the hatch shouting 'iceberg 2 o'clock' or something else out of the Titanic.
True enough the 'objects' really were icebergs and it was a sharp reminder to us that at 50 degrees south there is a real danger from these small breakaway icebergs or 'growlers'. I say small loosely, as the three that we saw in rapid succession (two to windward and one to leeward) were each between 100 metres across and the size of a football pitch as best we could tell in the dark about a half a mile away.
I was pleased to see that they shone reasonably brightly even at 2 o'clock in the morning in the ambient light. It was a nervous night from then on, with every white breaking wave off the bow tricking you into believing there could be small lumps of ice ahead. I noticed this morning that a few more people are now wearing survival suits and we have made a point of closing all the water-tight doors.
Green Dragon hard at work, on leg 5 of the Volvo Ocean Race, from Qingdao to Rio de Janeiro. Image copyright Guo Chuan/Green Dragon/Volvo Ocean Race.
Daylight came as a bit of a relief and we have now gybed north towards the ice gate that is supposed to keep us away from any such ice. Whilst I would love to see an iceberg in the daylight I will be more than happy to not see any more ice this race.
Volvo Ocean Race
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