For the past two days, the weather models have been telling the fleet to take a quick hitch to the south to avoid light winds.
© Konrad Frost/Volvo Ocean Race
It would hurt. Every mile south counted for nothing in terms of progress to the finish line. But one by one they complied.
All but the leader, SHK/Scallywag, who enjoyed seeing their advantage over the fleet increase to nearly 100 miles, at least some of it due to the others sailing south.
“For the last three days the routings have been desperate to gybe south but they have also failed to capture the reality of the wind we are actually in, all the manipulation you can do to the grib (weather) files still result in the routings wanting to gybe south. But who is going to do it? Well it wasn’t us,” wrote Scallywag navigator Libby Greenhalgh.
“So far as we expected the gybes have been a loss and the teams haven’t set up much past our line so not really gained any leverage to pull back the distance. More defensive on the fleet near them than attacking us.”
But finally, on Wednesday afternoon UTC, Scallywag skipper David Witt and Greenhalgh relented and took their medicine.
From what we could see before they entered Stealth Mode, it was going to be as painful as expected. A lead of 90 miles rapidly came down to 70, and then just 45 nautical miles.
It appeared as though Scallywag would cross ahead of the line of Vestas 11th Hour Racing with about a 40 mile lead – half of their winning margin sacrificed to drive down the leverage and consolidate.
But then they called Stealth Mode and disappeared from view. Have they gybed again on the line of Vestas 11th Hour Racing? Or continued further south? We won’t know until they reappear on the position report and tracker at 13:00 UTC Thursday.
Every team has the option of deploying Stealth Mode once per leg. When a team is in Stealth Mode, it will not show up on the position reports delivered publicly or to the rest of the fleet for three consecutive position reports. Teams in Stealth Mode still receive the position of the other boats in the fleet via the 6-hourly position reports.
Once the leading boat is within 200 miles of the finish line on a leg, all boats will be taken out of Stealth Mode for the remainder of the leg.
Race Control always receives the position of boats in Stealth Mode for safety considerations but does not publish them.
Overnight, Dongfeng Race Team became the first team on Leg 4 to engage Stealth Mode. They are due to reappear at 19:00 UTC Wednesday evening.
