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5:39 AM Mon 27 Apr 2009 GMT
The first 24 hours of 4,800 mile Leg 4 from Ilhabela, Brazil, to Charleston, South Carolina, have been a tortuous reintroduction to offshore sailing for the four boats in the Portim?o Global Ocean Race fleet.
Boris Herrmann describes the scene: 'We had around five knots of breeze with a two knot counter current,' says the German skipper. 'It was enough to fill the spinnaker and push Beluga Racer in the right direction and this continued throughout the first night. It was like sailing on a lake. No sooner had the noise from the fireworks onshore at the start died down, then the wind was switched off.'
Boat speeds fluctuated over the first night at sea but plummeted to two knot averages at dawn on Sunday. 'About an hour and a half after the start, as we were all approaching the northern end of the island, the wind died leaving us wallowing in the baking sunshine,' says Jeremy Salvesen on Team Mowgli. 'Wind was down below two knots and boat speeds were below one,' he continues. 'We took the option of heading for the shore of the mainland, hoping to pick up any afternoon sea breeze left, only to find that it wasn't there.' Having gybed away from Ilhabela, three boats ran out of breeze. 'Beluga and Roaring Forty were just in front and managed to pick up a puff of wind ahead of us, leaving us in their wake,' recalls Salvesen. 'The Chileans on Desafio Cabo de Hornos, who had been completely becalmed on the shores of Ilhabela, suddenly picked up wind and there was nothing the rest of us could do as we watched them disappear over the horizon.'
Boris Herrmann and Felix Oehme are unclear as to the root of the Chilean's successful tactic. 'I can't tell if they knew or suspected something that we didn't,' said Herrmann earlier today. 'Whatever the case, we were committed to our strategy.' While the German duo fought to keep the boat moving, Herrmann and co-skipper Felix Oehme had their hands full repairing their active autopilot - one of three units carried on board Beluga Racer. 'We worked on it all night trying to fix the electronic motor and it cost us some miles,' confirms Herrmann. Some ingenious cannibalisation involving the boat's electric coffee-frother has supplied a fix, but the experience was destabilising. 'We really want to get into the rhythm of racing,' says Herrmann. 'The stretch of water to the scoring gate just south of Recife is a very important.'
Within ten hours of the start, Felipe Cubillos and Jos? Mu?oz had built an 8.9 mile lead over the German team on Beluga Racer and a 19 mile lead over The British duo of Jeremy Salvesen and David Thomson on Team Mowgli. Early on Sunday morning, Cubillos revealed the secret behind the Chilean strategy. 'On the day before the start, we went out sailing to recalibrate all the on board instruments,' explains the Chilean skipper. 'We headed towards the northern tip of the island and discovered a Venturi Effect just to leeward of Ilhabela. In effect, this gave a parcel of accelerated breeze from the west: totally different to the breeze offshore.' Although Desafio Cabo de Hornos stalled momentarily, the gambit paid-off. 'After a couple of hours, our breeze arrived while the boats further offshore to the north fell into a windless hole.'
As for future strategy, the teams have been waiting for a forecast breeze from the south-west or north-west, whereas the reality has been north-easterly breeze. 'The weather information so close to the coast is confused and the best thing was to get further away from land,' says Cubillos and the entire fleet clearly felt the same and turned south-east in unison at 0500 GMT on Sunday. 'The smart thing to do would be to head back towards the coast sometime after dawn,' predicted the Chilean skipper. 'But we'll just have to wait and see how things unfold.' By 1400 GMT on Sunday, all the boats had indeed turned back towards the north-east and were on a heading for Rio de Janeiro.
The 1520 GMT position poll on Sunday represents 24 hours at sea for the Portim?o Global Ocean Race and Felipe Cubillos and Jos? Mu?oz are holding the lead on Desafio Cabo de Hornos, 8.3 miles ahead of Boris Herrmann and Felix Oehme on Beluga Racer in second place. Currently averaging the highest speed at 6.2knots, Jeremy Salvesen and David Thomson are furthest offshore on Team Mowgli and trail the German team by ten miles. Meanwhile, the fleet's solo sailor, Michel Kleinjans holds the northerly position in the fleet, closest inshore with Open 40 Roaring Forty and trails the leading double-handed boat by 11 miles.
Although the racing is intense, the memory of the time spent onshore has not been totally erased for the Portim?o Global Ocean Race teams. 'We all had a fantastic time in Brazil,' says Jeremy Salvesen, speaking on behalf of the fleet. 'We were all joined by friends and family and were welcomed and looked after by the good people of Ilhabela with an interest and enthusiasm that was quite extraordinary,' continues the British skipper. 'Despite the language barriers, we were regularly stopped in the streets or in restaurants to be asked some detail or other about our race.' However, Salvesen and the other six skippers in the fleet are fully back in the game. 'So, it was sad to leave,' he admits. 'But time to get going with our race and we relish the battles that lie ahead and hope that all four boats can provide the same sort of competition as the last leg!'
www.portimaoglobaloceanrace.com/
by Oliver Dewar
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Sailing
