The question of where to make the turn towards Cape Town after skirting South Atlantic High pressure was hanging over the fleet racing in the first leg of the Volvo Ocean Race. Brasil 1 (Torben Grael) was in the lead, and we left the story with Torben Grael noting, “It is in the hands of the Father.”

The Father decided, (or was it the wind gods?) that on day 15, 26 November, ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson) should be the first to hook into the strong westerly breeze and ride the high speed conveyor to the finish. What a relief for Mike Sanders who said “I wouldn’t swap any part of what we have on ABN AMRO ONE for anything.”

Weather forecasters were predicting high speed 24 hour runs again, and they were not mistaken. Even Sunergy and Friends (Grant Wharington) who were now 880 nm behind the leaders started to enjoy the ride. “A bit bouncy, but, hey, nice and fast, wrote navigator Campbell Field.

Day 15 and ABN AMRO ONE was being chased, and chased hard by their little brothers on ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse). “After much anticipation and patient waiting, the downwind sleigh ride to Cape Town is finally under way,” wrote Simon Fisher, the navigator on ABN AMRO TWO. The boat was staring to load up as the wind increased and the crew pushed the boat a little harder ever hour. At a steady 26 knots, they were still flying the masthead spinnaker. Mike Sanderson was looking over his shoulder and issued a gentle word of warning: “We need to be grown up about this and keep this thing (the boat) in one piece,” he said.

As the paced heated up at the head of the fleet, Sunergy and Friends, racing in their own private weather system scored their first points of the Volvo Ocean Race by rounding Fernando de Noronha and claiming 1.5 points.

Daybreak on day 16, 27 November and the two Dutch boats had shown a clean set of heels to Brasil 1 and Ericsson (Neal McDonald) as they led the fleet at a scorching pace across the south Atlantic. Brasil 1 and Ericsson had positioned themselves a little to the north, while Team ABN AMRO blasted off further south with both their boats.

By 1600 GMT later that day, records had fallen and both Team ABN AMRO boats had smashed the monohull 24-hour world speed record. Movistar (Bouwe Bekking) had set the record of 530 nm earlier in the year while sailing movistar back from the builders in Australia to Galicia. The record was broken first by ABN AMRO TWO and then ABN AMRO ONE but speeds kept rising. It wasn’t until day 17, 28 November, that the highest numbers were confirmed and the record was claimed by ABN AMRO ONE with a final tally of 546 nautical miles at an average speed of 22.75 knots throughout the 24-hour period. Not to be outdone, the young fellas, as they had been dubbed, clocked in at 539 nm, averaging 22.45 knots and also breaking movistar’s record.

“It’s an amazing feeling,” wrote Sanderson in his daily missive to Race HQ, paying tribute to Sebastien Josse’s team, saying, “They are just flying. I did try to warn a few people about the ‘White Rocket’ when we were in Spain, and I knew it was falling on deaf ears.”

Meanwhile, further back on the race track, Ericsson had set up 94 nm north of the two Dutch boats, with Brasil 1 sandwiched between them. Performance was dropping on Ericsson. They had lost their special reaching headsail on the first night at sea and this was they sail they most needed to keep in touch. Brasil 1 continued to hold second and increased her lead over Ericsson. Sunergy and Friends had slipped to 1465 miles adrift as they headed south.

After a busy weekend breaking records, on day 17, 28 November, the race office received a report from ABN AMRO ONE informing them that they had hit a shark. “We heard a thud on the keel, it didn’t really slow the boat down, but you could feel it shaking the boat,” described Mike Sanderson.

Ericsson was licking her wounds after a brutal weekend watching the Dutch boats and Brasil 1 sail away, and Bouwe Bekking, the skipper of movistar sent a note of congratulation to Mike Sanderson and Sebastien Josse for breaking his record, as his crew worked hard to repair the damage to movistar sustained in the storms of the first night. Pirates of the Caribbean became the first boat to arrive in Cape Town, but transported by an Antonov 124 aeroplane and skipper Paul Cayard said he intended to be sailing again by December 10. Sunergy and Friends continued to look for the St Helena High, so they could avoid it, leading to Campbell Field saying, “The St Helena High should be renamed as the bloody thing hasn’t been anywhere near St Helena since I’ve been tracking it!”

The big news of the day on day 18, 29 November, was that Ericsson reported a failure in their keel movement system. Neal McDonald was steering the boat when it happened. “We were reaching along at speeds of over 20 knots and quite pleased with ourselves, as we felt at last conditions had allowed us to make a comeback at the Brazilians and a pleasant evening’s sail quickly became a nightmare. A massive bang took us all by surprise. ‘What the hell was that?’ There was no visible damage, but it was obvious that the keel was flopping from side to side.” Crewmember Richard Mason managed to lock the keel in one safe position, but with it came the awful realisation that they could no longer race the boat hard and any hope of catching the Brazilians was gone. The team was mortified.

After 18 days at sea, the days were beginning to run in together. “What day are we up to? Day 14, day 15? Who cares? What’s for lunch? Who cares and what does it matter anyway, it all tastes the same,” wrote Mark Christensen from ABN AMRO ONE. To ease the situation, the crew started to place bets on their estimated arrival time in Cape Town. The winner of the jackpot would have to buy drinks for the rest of the crew with it!

Onboard ABN AMRO TWO, a shower, a beer and a shave were some of things the crews were now focussing on as Cape Town drew closer.

Day 19 and cold weather swept over the fleet bringing with it the first exciting spotting of an albatross. Each boat in the race has been provided with a laminate card by the Save the Albatross Campaign with pictures of the different species of albatross and their description. “It is a pretty awesome sight at first (seeing an albatross), soaring across the waves. It is impressive how big these birds are, not to mention how far they can fly in one hit,” wrote Simon Fisher from ABN AMRO TWO.

Adrienne Cahalan (Brasil1) said that it was her fifth time sailing through the South Atlantic and the Southern Ocean and said, “I have seen fewer albatross than at any other time since 1993.” Surveys indicate that 19 of the species of albatross are in danger of becoming extinct and Adrienne urged everyone to join the fight to save this precious bird and in doing so maintain the balance of the oceans which is so important to human life itself.

The leaders were now a little over 24 hours away from Cape Town and their friends and family were gathering for the welcome and the inevitable parties. Bouwe Bekking formally retired movistar from this leg and decided to send movistar on to Cape Town on a cargo ship, which will take two weeks,

Sunergy and Friends found the “I might move back to St Helena (but will hang around to spook you for a while first) High” and turned the corner to head towards Cape Town, and discovered that they had not run out of sugar after all. Meanwhile the two Dutch boats and Brasil 1 continued to scream in towards Cape Town at 18 knots.

Day 20 and Cape Town was poised to welcome the fleet. Crowds standing in the December sunshine were lining the docks, helicopters hovering, and support boats milling about in Table Bay.

Finally the wait was over as ABN AMRO ONE finished the 6,400 nautical mile course after 19 days, 24 minutes and 2 seconds at sea. She crossed the line to a rapturous welcome at 1324 GMT (1524 local time) and in doing so became the leader of the Volvo Ocean Race overall.

ABN AMRO TWO made it a Double Dutch victory when they finished second at 1956 GMT, giving them fourth position overall. Next in was Brasil 1, who drifted over the finish line early this morning on day 21 to claim third place podium position but equal second overall with Ericsson, who will finish in the next 24 hours.

In other parts of the world today, there were two high speed chases happening. One was onboard Sunergy and Friends (Grant Wharington) and one was onboard a Wilhelmsen Wallenius freighter on the other side of the Atlantic, in Cadiz, Spain.

The crew of Sunergy and Friends had waited and waited, and today, finally, this team, who were forced to put into Porto Santo near Madeira to fix their boom, which was damaged in the first night storm, has started to sail fast. Very fast. Today, they achieved the third fastest for a Volvo 70 so far in leg one of the Volvo Ocean Race with a run from noon to noon of 503 nm, averaging 20.9 knots.

“Our 540 nm target was based around ABN AMRO ONE’s run (estimated), and was becoming achievable as time rolled on, projecting forward our hourly runs. However sensibility took over from ego, and we are now down to a jib top and staysail, and are still cruising along at and 18 to 19 knot average, but with a great deal less stress,” wrote Campbell Field an hour ago.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, a ship is waiting for movistar. Volvo Ocean Race Official Shipping Line, Wallenius Wilhelmsen, has to come to movistar’s rescue and has diverted their freighter, MV Toronto, to Puerto Real Shipyard in Spain, close to Cadiz, to load movistar onto the deck tonight. Loading will begin at 1800 GMT and the team expects it to be completed tonight so that the ship can leave immediately. The trip will take approximately 16 days.

Movistar will be loaded on to the freighter’s deck on her cradle by a 40-metre crane. Her mast will also be on the deck and her workshop container will also be loaded. The shore crew has been bolstered by two of the sailing crew, Pepe Ribes and Xabi Fernandez, who are helping with the logistics of this operation.

Skipper, Bouwe Bekking said this morning, “The boat, if the plans goes in the proper way, will be at South Africa on the 16th or 17th and, after tuning the boat, we will have her ready to go to the water in one or two days. We are looking forward to starting the training programme again on the 18th December.”

Fourth placed, Ericsson, is now sailing in the light conditions that affected Brasil 1 this morning and her estimated time of arrival in Cape Town is now 0634GMT tomorrow morning.

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