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The six teams competing in The Ocean Race Atlantic have had a fast and furious first half of their transatlantic crossing from New York to Lorient in France. After a slow first day (slow being a relative word for these boats) that saw most of the boats dip south looking to ride the edge of a small cell of high pressure, they have since picked up some breeze and have been hoofing it at full tilt.
There are live cameras filming on each boat, as well as the footage taken by the on-board-reporter being sent back via satellite, and all cameras show bucketloads of water cascading down the deck and being unceremoniously dumped into the cockpit which is constantly awash. They have been experiencing some brutal sailing conditions and life down below has been a challenge. “We only sleep when we are so exhausted that we can’t stay awake,” Oliver Heer, skipper of Embrace the Challenge said.
Francesca Clapcich, the skipper of 11th Hour Racing has admitted that she suffers from sea sickness and has been throwing up constantly. “I may have been sick and felt like dying, but I never missed my watch,” she said. Even for those of us who don’t normally suffer from seasickness, just looking at the footage was enough to make me feel ill.
The leaders are now well past the longitude of the Azores Islands (the place where I plan to retire) and are on the final full blast stretch to the finish in France. The forecast looks good. Right now the leaders are riding the top edge of a small high pressure and it’s feeding them light southwesterlies, but that high is forecast to move to the east and the front edge of an intense low will give them another wet and wild ride with winds predicted to be in the 30-35 knot range.
Just enough to make life on board almost impossible to manage as the boats leap and land with a crash that resonates throughout the carbon hull only to be repeated every 30 seconds. At least the temperature is relatively mild. How a solo sailor will manage similar conditions all alone in the Southern Ocean where the temperature regularly dips below freezing in another story altogether.
It’s still a toss-up for line honors. There is not much in it. As of writing, with less than 800 miles to go, just 18 miles separate the first four boats. Kojiro Shiarishi and his team on Dmg Mori Global have a slight edge, but the wild card is Boris Herrman on Team Malizia who led the initial stages, but hit something with a leeward foil causing them to lose close to 100 miles which they have slowly clawed back. Keep an eye on things. It’s going to be a photo finish in Lorient. I just wish that there were more boats. Photo by Gauthier Lebec. Follow the fleet here!
