The seven boats racing in the 3,200 nautical mile trans-Atlantic leg of the Volvo Ocean Race are back out on the race track and, once again, bashing their way to windward in the teeth of a gale. Conditions are rough, wet and cold, and likely to remain so for the next three days. Not a pleasant prospect for the crews who have already taken a severe punishing on the short sprint from Baltimore/Annapolis up to New York earlier this week.

After making the best start in the Hudson River and leading the fleet out of New York, the American entry, Pirates of the Caribbean (Paul Cayard/USA), has now been overtaken. Ericsson (Neal McDonald/UK), Brasil 1 (Torben Grael) and overall race leader, ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson/NZ), are all level pegging at the head of the fleet, but skipper Paul Cayard, now in fourth, but only by a mile, was jubilant in his first report to race headquarters:

“It doesn’t get any better than that,” he wrote. “At 1300, The Black Pearl hit the starting line clear ahead of her opponents and, with more speed, quickly stretched out to a 15 boat length lead. We led the fleet out past the Statue of Liberty. What a way to leave the USA for the Pirates of the Caribbean. We are the only American boat in the Volvo Ocean Race and we have had a fantastic three weeks in the USA. Today’s start was the icing on the cake.”

The fleet is hard on the wind, on port tack, and is now past the Ambrose Light Tower. Nantucket Island is about 178 miles away and the fleet is expecting the breeze to shift to the right, allowing them to lay, or nearly lay the island. Movistar (Bouwe Bekking/NED), who took a two-hour penalty in order to repair their winch system, has just drawn level with the Tower and is only 9 miles behind Ericsson, but still sailing slower.

“We are all watching each other closely, to see who tacks first” explains Will Oxley, the navigator of Brunel (Matt Humphrey/UK). “We don’t want to be the first, but we want to stay with the other boats, so we will just hang on a while longer as we expect slightly more favourable breeze a little to the south,” he added.

The breeze will build to approximately 25 knots ahead of a low pressure system and once the fleet tacks onto starboard, they will almost certainly hold that course for the next 36 hours, closing on Nova Scotia on Saturday.

“We are settling in for what will be a long and cold 10 days,” warns Cayard. “It will get rough later tonight and all day tomorrow, tomorrow night and moderating on Saturday afternoon. We will be focused on keeping the boat in one piece if it gets real rough,” he said.

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