The final week of leg four of the Volvo Ocean Race from Wellington to Rio de Janeiro was set to be a drawn out affair. As day 14, March 4, dawned, Sebastien Josse and his young team onboard ABN AMRO TWO had worked their boat into second position. The fleet was now 168 nautical miles east of the Falkland Islands and 550 miles from the Argentinean coast, and, as predicted, the boats had closed together and now only 48 nm separated first from fifth.

Movistar, meanwhile, had arrived in Ushuaia after being escorted all the way by a Chilean naval vessel. The shore crew were standing on the dockside when the boat came into view in the dead of night. Although exhausted, the crew were not ready to give up. “There is an outside chance of second place and we believe we can definitely make third place, “said Dutch skipper Bouwe Bekking. Farr Yacht Design, the designers of movistar were standing by to assist in any way they could.

Day 15, March 5, was one of those days that the new Volvo Open 70 was designed for. The fleet was reaching in breezes from 15 to 22 knots with boat speed nearly always matching the speed of the wind. The last 24 hours had been stress-free sailing for the first time in many days and the few sail changes that had to be made were tackled with fresh enthusiasm. But it wasn’t to last. By 1600 GMT, the fleet was sailing to windward and the wind ahead was forecast to become lighter as a high pressure ridge lay in their path.

Movistar was craned back into the water on day 16 and motored back to the spot where she suspended racing three days ago. As the team suspected, the fairing between the keel and the hull had broken off and that was how the water leaked into the boat. The team made temporary repairs in Ushuaia and set off towards Rio with their canting keel firmly locked in the centre of the boat. More repairs were planned in Brazil.

For the rest of the fleet, it was another 24 hours of smooth sailing. The dreaded slow passage through the high pressure ridge did not materialise and the fleet kept their speeds up. The order remained unchanged, but ABN AMRO ONE was showing impressive speed, at times up to two knots faster than anyone else. Strategy was king and consuming the navigators’ attention.

“I can’t stop thinking about strategy,” wrote Steve Hayles, navigator of Ericsson in fifth place. “It keeps me awake when I should be sleeping and I switch off from everything including the guys around me as I try and make sure that we are doing everything possible to leverage a position where we can make a gain and make it stick.”

By day 17, March 7, the pressure was really on and it had been a back and forth battle. The fleet was now 800 miles from Rio, a distance that could be covered easily in a fast two day sail, but the light winds made a delay of at least three days seem inevitable.

Knut Frostad from Brasil 1 filed a complaint:

“The brochure promised ice cold drinks, comfortable king size beds, exclusive gourmet meals and a service minded crew. On top of that, I was promised a Captain’s dinner at least once a week. Basically, it all looked like my dream holiday.

“And here I am! We are 1,000 miles from Rio. The king size bed is barely big enough for a kid and the one I was given has ripped apart. The food does not look or taste as on the brochure (apparently we are also running out of food in a couple of days), the staff is smelly and the couple of times I had dinner with the captain, he farted and wore no white uniform at all. The sun deck is quite big, but I still haven’t seen the sun. Basically I have been fouled.”

The racing became a grim game of snakes and ladders, a simple game where you work your way towards the finish, taking turns to throw the dice. “Yesterday,” explained Mike Sanderson from ABN AMRO ONE, “we slid down a nasty snake and lost 29 miles on the fleet and 39 miles to Brasil 1. Over the hours of darkness last night we gained back all that we had lost, plus some nice interest on a good ladder as we shot out to the biggest lead we have had for the whole leg.”

But apart from the frustrations with the weather, life onboard was good. “It is a far cry from the rigours of the Southern Ocean,” wrote Simon Fisher from ABN AMRO TWO. “We are sailing in shorts and t-shirts in the sun. The boat is now dry and you sleep well without being tossed around like a pancake in your bunk.”

But overnight, the fleet floundered in pockets of little or no wind. On day 18, Ericsson Racing Team was facing the possibility of finishing this leg in last place and onboard the stress was mounting. “We are at the back of the fleet and desperate to make gains,” wrote Steve Hayles. “The anxiety of sitting here in the nav station for hours at a time in little or no wind, almost praying for breeze, is enough to stop you eating and sleeping.”

Movistar had by now left the Falkland Islands behind them and were heading north towards Rio, but over 1000 miles behind the rest of the fleet.

On day 19, the breeze made a brief reappearance, but the seas were steep and choppy and the approach to Rio was fast becoming a bone-jarring affair. At the head of the fleet, Sanderson and the ABN AMRO ONE crew were watching the opposition carefully. Pirates of the Caribbean were 74 miles behind them, and Brasil 1 and ABN AMRO TWO were beginning a scrap that would last right up to the finish in Rio.

Progress on movistar was painfully slow as they sailed north in search of warmer weather. Their highlight in the next few days would be the day that Pepe Ribes allowed them to break into the leg of cured ham kindly given to the team by a Spanish icebreaker while they were in Ushuaia. “I am told,” wrote Mikey Joubert, “this is a very special gift to have received. We are also told by Pepe that there is a special ceremony required when opening and cutting the ham for the first time. He is keeping us all in mouth-water suspense when, every morning, he announces that ‘tomorrow will be the day’. If he does not hurry up, he will wake up to find a large piece missing and some very content people on deck.”

Day 20, March 10 and the closing stages of the leg were slow going and anything but straight forward and simple. A high pressure cell ahead of the fleet threatened to let ABN AMRO ONE through but trap Pirates of the Caribbean, while the remaining three boats could then catch up. On movistar, Pepe Ribes had still not let the crew open their ham. He said that he did not want them scoffing themselves and then throwing it up again in the rough weather. Perhaps day 21 would be the day?

Shortly after 1600 GMT, the Pirates became caught in the high pressure cell and were stopped dead in their tracks. Brasil 1 pounced and immediately took second place but only by a mile. ABN AMRO TWO was now only nine miles behind. Ericsson had yet another spell of bad luck when she was hit by lightning, taking a direct strike to the top of the mast, which, to the amazement of the crew, resulted in flames at the top of the mast. “We have destroyed most of the electronics on the boat and we are without any sailing instruments, navigation computers, radar, VHF and other nav gear. The sextant has been broken out just in case, but no need to use it yet,” wrote skipper Neal McDonald.

And then it was all over. ABN AMRO ONE finished the leg in first place, focussed and foot perfect. They drifted across the finish line at 00:18:23 local time after 20 days, one hour, 49 minutes and three seconds to claim first place. The team collected 3.5 points for passing the Cape Horn scoring gate first, and seven points for the leg win, bringing their total now to 49 points and putting them solidly at the top of the overall scoreboard.

In quick succession the next three boats crossed the finish. After 6,700 nautical miles of racing, the battle for second and third podium positions raged until the very last moments. In the last hours of the leg, Pirates of the Caribbean regained second position to cross the line at 04:06:50 local time followed just 30 minutes later by the young guns on ABN AMRO TWO. Local heroes, Brasil 1, missed a podium position in Rio de Janeiro, their home port, by the slimmest of margins, finishing 25 minutes behind ABN AMRO TWO.

And finally, Ericsson Racing Team crossed the line at 1612 local time after 20 days, 17 hours and 42 minutes at sea. It was a leg that this tired crew would rather forget. Perhaps they will have luck on their side next time?

Today, day 22 and movistar is still sailing north. The ham has not yet been opened and the crew are fed up with having no wind. Navigator, Andrew Cape, suggested taking down the sails and going to sleep for 10 hours, but instead the team battles on, changing sails all the time as what little breeze there is, is very unstable. With a fraction over 750 nautical miles to sail before reaching Rio, the movistar team is not expected to arrive until March 16. Perhaps Pepe will have allowed them to open the ham by then?

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