At last, after a difficult couple of days, the fleet racing in leg one of the Volvo Ocean Race has flooded through the Straits of Gibraltar and has been set free into the Atlantic, led by Chris Nicholson’s CAMPER at 2100 GMT last night.
At 1000 GMT today, CAMPER has clung onto her slim lead from Telefónica/ Iker Martínez (ESP), PUMA’s Mar Mostro (Ken Read/USA) and Groupama 4 (Franck Cammas/FRA).
As the fleet made its escape from the fearsome Mediterranean, conditions became far more manageable, with the breeze dropping to a pleasant 10 knots maximum. CAMPER’s navigator Will Oxley described the change in conditions as going “from the sublime to the ridiculous – 38 knots to five knots.”
“The next challenge for the fleet is the big area or light winds ahead and how best to negotiate through these to hook into the favourable trade winds and remain in the lead,” he added.
Now that conditions have eased, the crews will be able to get some rest and clear up the inevitable mess down below. Ken Read’s team on board PUMA’s Mar Mostro says below decks on the black boat is something of an obstacle course of food bags, personal kit, sails and people. Finding anything has been nearly impossible.
Today will be all about tactics and could be the day that we might expect to see one of the fleet make its break to the west, where better winds are forecast in the next 24 hours. Will the first boat to make this move take the rest of the fleet with it? Perhaps this question will be answered in the next 12 hours. Meanwhile, the fleet continues to broad reach 70 nautical miles off coast at around 12 knots.