It’s taken a nerve-racking couple of days, but the leading boats in Leg 2 of the Volvo Ocean Race have now all gybed and pointed their bows at the finish line off Cape Town, still some 2,400 nautical miles away.
Is this the line up for the final sprint?
Abby Ehler, boat captain on Team Brunel, who were first to gybe at approximately 2100 UTC on Saturday night thinks so. Her tweet from the crew communicator giving credit to navigator Andrew Cape read:
“We have just completed ‘THE’ gybe. This is us to Cape Town Port Gybe all the way! Capey on a roll playing chess like a master!”
The upbeat sentiment extends to Vestas 11th Hour Racing, next to gybe, and positioned just in behind Brunel as they have been for much of the last week.
“The mood on board has been particularly good this evening, no doubt as we have finally turned the boat and are pointing the bow roughly in the direction of Cape Town,” wrote navigator Simon Fisher.
“We have spent much of the day heading south west with the distance to the waypoint steadily growing albeit at a modest rate so it feels good to be finally getting closer to our destination.
“Tactically it has also been good to see the south start to pay-out after a series of scheds where the boats in the north continued to look strong despite being closer to the high. After what feels like an eternity of waiting it was good to see us finally make some gains against them. Never content however I can’t help kicking myself a little for not going more aggressively south with Brunel but sometimes it is hard to play the percentages with boats on both sides. That said it has been comforting to see Brunel pop up on the AIS this evening as we prepared to gybe meaning we are still very much in the hunt with them despite them putting on another strong showing in the last 24 hours.”
One team where the mood will be heavier is Dongfeng Racing. Just over 24 hours ago, the team was strongly positioned to the south of the fleet, alongside MAPFRE, but gave up that position by delaying a gybe to the southwest. As a result, the team found itself positioned further east, closer to the ligth winds of the high pressure system, and over the course of Saturday paid a steep price.
“We’re f$%*ked,” is how navigator Pascal Bidegorry put it to the crew after coming on deck with the afternoon position report on Saturday.
While that may be an exaggeration, it is certainly clear on the tracker that Dongfeng is in a much more difficult position now than they were just 30 hours ago. And after leading for most of the leg, they now appear to be fighting for third place.
But with 2,400 miles and nearly a week of sailing still to go, there’s plenty of racing left on Leg 2, and plenty of time for things to change.
“I’ve seen some very strange stuff happen out here on the ocean,” offered seven-time race veteran Stu Bannatyne to the Dongfeng crew as words of encouragement. “It’s never over til it’s over.”
