Andrew McLean onboard Green Dragon, on leg 6 of the Volvo Ocean Race, from Rio de Janeiro to Boston. Image copyright Guo Chuan/Green Dragon Racing/Volvo Ocean Race.
by Ian Walker (skipper)
At around midnight last night we passed the island of Fernando de Noronha for the second time in this race. For six of us onboard who have sailed every leg and never sailed the race before, this means we have completed our first circumnavigation of the world. For guys like Neal McDonald it is simply yet another 'lap'.
Having sailed all through Asia it really does feel like we have sailed the whole world too! This is a great achievement for these guys and for the team as a whole but we will not truly consider the 'lap' complete until we get to Galway.
Spirits are good onboard despite being last at the scoring gate. We are sailing well and over the last 24 hours we have taken lots of miles out of the pack. We need to steal as many miles as we can in the doldrums before we get into the NE trades and power reaching conditions again.
Telefónica Blue has done a nice job leading at the gate but I will admit it is frustrating that we were right behind them at Capo Frio having done the hard bit well. We have 3600 miles between us and Boston to find another break. It is quite bizarre how 3600 miles seems like a short hop after the marathon leg five. In fact if the weather forecast holds true we should have less than 1000 miles to go in a week’s time.
We are technically in the doldrums right now with towering clouds and rain squalls, but still we hold good wind - for now. The sailing is fantastic, especially at night with lots of medium air reaching. It looks like it will only get better too.
Life aboard today is mainly focused on the rite of passage across the Equator for James Carroll, our popular boat captain. Rumour has it an oriental King Neptune, King Chuan, will be making an appearance and a considerable list of 'crimes' has been prepared. Unfortunately for Jimbo the lads have had far too long, with nothing else to think about, for him to get away lightly and this is our third ceremony of the race so we are getting better at them. It seems hard to believe that only six months ago I was among those getting initiated - an awful lot has happened since then.
Volvo Ocean Race
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