Ian Walker and the
crafty vets aboard Abu Dhabi once again showed their mastery of
short-handed, close track, in-port sailing by battling Groupama neck-and-neck
the entire race just off-shore of glittering South Beach in fluky, dying-wind
conditions. PUMA stole third from Camper in a photo
finish. And Telefónica managed to shoot itself in the foot yet again
after grabbing the lead at the first windward mark, getting rolled after
sailing off-shore and getting pounded by the current, and hitting the
next-to-last mark after desperately trying to squeeze in a floundering leeward
tack, forcing them it to do a penalty turn which doomed them to last, thus
allowing all of her rivals to close the points gap.
Abu
Dhabi continued its mastery of Miami by leading the pack on its
3,590-mile leg to Lisbon against a stiff north wind and the 3-knot Gulf Stream.
“There’s nothing like going upwind in the Gulf Stream and
slamming into a big swell,” said PUMA watch captain Tony Mutter.
Normally, the quickest route to Europe is not the most
direct. Previous Volvo winners have sailed up the coast of North America to
the top of Maine, where an iceberg exclusion zone marks the northern limit of
the race course, and then slingshot east to Europe. But that strategy went out
the window when Tropical Storm Alberto rolled in off the coast of Georgia
offering a narrow window of opportunity for any boat that could catch a ride on
its powerful winds all the way to the Azores.
That was a nice plan, but when TS Alberto unexpectedly
turned, the smooth downwind sailing at the storm’s edge turned into everyone
but Groupama’s
worst nightmare. The French boat gybed before trouble hit and this time the
move handed them a 70-mile lead on PUMA.
Abu
Dhabi Ocean Racing skipper
Ian Walker described the frustrating struggle.
“The
whole fleet with the exception of Groupama were caught out when the
tropical depression Alberto changed course and moved south east over the top of
us. We were trying to ride the windshift and extra wind just to the south of it
but a violent windshift headed us straight into the eye of the storm. We came
off some terrible waves. And the lightning was crashing all around right down
to the water and it didn’t seem possible our carbon mast could avoid a direct
strike.”
Alberto
finally drifted north and the fleet headed east, enjoying some fast downwind
sailing. At this point, the fleet had separated by about 40 miles with Telefónica farthest to the north and Camper to the south. Groupama and PUMA took the middle lane.
But
the North Atlantic is always unpredictable and the models showed several
options – and trap doors - ahead.
Will
Oxley, the frazzled old navigator on Camper agonized.
“…there is a big high about to roll down over the top of us. The routing is
showing two quite dramatically different solutions right now. If you are slow
you need to bug out now and go well north to get above the high pressure that’s
coming in from Canada. If you are fast enough you can slip through to the
Azores high and play the edge of that with the front.”
The next guest to the
party was a big high pressure system of light winds dropping down from
Newfoundland. Camper was the first to tack north toward the land
of the icebergs, followed by PUMA
and Sanya.
The lead boats Telefónica and Groupama , along with Abu Dhabi, decided to try and continue east and sail
around the bottom of the new game changer.
But after a few days,
the Newfoundland High convinced the southern boats to tack north in order to
escape its windless grip.
“For a few days we have clung to the
hope that we could just about ride the southwesterly wind east and connect with
the westerly flow round the Azores High that would deliver us to Lisbon,”
skipper Ian Walker aboard Abu Dhabi said. “It was a dream scenario – a very direct and
downwind route that avoided the ice gates to the north.”
And so, the nightmare began as the
fleet slogged its way ever north, searching for breeze along the meandering
edges of the Gulf Stream in the frigid North Atlantic. Following the race
tracker GPS showed six boats heading east, then north, then east, then north,
climbing steadily into the land of the ice and snow. No one slept. There was
barely time to even eat. The wind constantly shifted – sometimes as much as 60
degrees – forcing all hands to dash up on-deck to change the sails in a chaotic
scramble, wearing all of their bulky foul weather gear.
Amory Ross aboard PUMA said. “Everyone’s
crisscrossing around out here and the first boat free will likely have a large
advantage as forecasts are calling for fast downwind conditions, but the
weather isn’t going according to schedule and we’re still searching for a sign
of the system’s northern boundary.”
Abu Dhabi was the first boat to find the strong westerlies that
rocketed them toward Lisbon, followed by PUMA and Camper. Now it was straight line,
fast, downwind sailing with one final light wind road block remaining about 200
miles from the finish.
Nick Dana - Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing
In what was one of the closest Volvo
finishes, and after twelve days of intense racing, Abu Dhabi squeaked out a six minute victory over Groupama (the new
overall race leader), followed by PUMA.
Next
Stop: Lorient, France
VOLVO OCEAN RACE SCOREBOARD
GROUPAMA 183
Telefónica 180
PUMA 171
CAMPER 162
Abu Dhabi 104
SANYA 32
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