VOR: 'We have to win'

Gabriele Olivo, the media crew member on Telefonica Blue. Image copyright Dave Kneale/Volvo Ocean Race.

by Gabriele Olivo (interview by Riath Al-Samarrai)

We sailed the practice race, the in-port race and the pro-am, but Monday was my first real day back. I still feel the effect a bit, but I had a nice break from it all. I went with my girlfriend to Busios for three days - including my birthday - and it was just really nice to disconnect and relax.

I'm still getting over the leg physically. I went running when I was away and could see my body is still so bad. I'm not tired, but as soon as any physical effort comes in I notice it is not like before. I try whenever there is flat water to do some push ups or exercise, but you cannot do enough to make a big difference. My sleep is also getting normal again. The first days I kept waking up at 6am, but now it's fine.

Looking back at the leg it was hard in different ways to normal. Because we broke the forestay halfway through, we never really got back to racing mode. We always tried to come back, but we never really went into the stressful, pushing the boat 100% all the time. We probably had 20 days out 40 on that, so physically it was not bad. I lost about five kilos. The weather was also a lot calmer than we expected so we didn't suffer too much.

The most difficult thing was the psychology onboard. It was pretty devastating, the leg. We had come in with two leg wins and the conditions would have been perfect for us: there were maybe only three or four days where we would not have been in ideal conditions. But the forestay broke and it was a lot of points gone.

It is tough to spend 43 days onboard with 10 people anyway, but when you are not racing 100%, it is pretty hard for everyone. I think this group is a very good one, everyone tried hard to make it work, to not be too impatient or irritated with each other. I tried hard to help in this area because I am the only one who runs through the day; I get to see everyone two or three times a day. You see everyone and you can make sure there are no misunderstandings, especially in the opposite watches because they only see each other at the change of watch. But we tried to keep the spirit as high as possible, talking about anything, parallel universes, Pavlov's dogs, anything.

I also got to go round Cape Horn, which was great. It was a calm day and I got the photo. Things like that are very personal and for me it was special. I can tick it off my list. I would like to go round in tougher weather and I would also like to see an iceberg one day, maybe when I am sailing this race as a competitor.

As a media man, it was also quite a hard leg. I never want the team to do badly, even though it probably means I might get good footage. But when the forestay broke there were drops all over the lens and I couldn't get good footage anyway, so it was bad from all points of view! It was interesting seeing the guys reaction to everything though, you learn a lot at that kind of time. I was happy to see Gustav (Morin) with the media prize. He is a great guy and his work so far has been excellent.

The last few days have been good. Leg five was not good for the morale, as you would expect. But we won the in-port race and also the pro-am and that has made a big difference. It was perfect timing. Now we need to do well in the next leg. Everyone in this team really wants to win the race and I think the next leg is essential. I think we have to win.

Volvo Ocean Race