#VOR - Dongfeng Race Team was able to fend off a late charge by Vestas 11th Hour Racing and Team Brunel to secure a second-place finish on Leg 3 of the Volvo Ocean Race from Cape Town to Melbourne on Christmas Day.

It’s the second consecutive second place finish for skipper Charles Caudrelier’s team and this one will be bittersweet. The team led for much of this hard Southern Ocean leg and were disappointed to see MAPFRE make a pass to take the win.

But with just one day left to the finish, Dongfeng suffered damage to its keel system and Caudrelier was suddenly looking over his shoulder at Vestas 11th Hour Racing and Team Brunel.

“I hope we can hold on, I think we deserve second place,” Caudrelier said yesterday.

At one point, the Vestas squad posted in second place on distance to finish, but with his boat fixed and the wind returning, Caudrelier and his crew were able to lock down second place and an important 12 points on this double point scoring leg.

“This was the toughest leg I’ve ever done,” Caudrelier said. “We had this big fight with MAPFRE for most of the race and then a big problem on board just before the finish. A crazy section of gybing around the ice limits, it was a very, very difficult leg.

“We’re a bit disappointed after leading 80 per-cent of the time to give first place to MAPFRE, but there are more legs to come and we will do better.

“They have a small advantage in terms of points and we know they don’t make many mistakes… So each point is important.”

The second place finish will move Dongfeng Race Team up to second place on the overall leaderboard, equal on points with third-place finishers Vestas 11th Hour Racing.

Just after crossing the finishing line, Vestas team director and co-skipper Mark Towill acknowledged the scale of the achievement.

“It was a tough leg. We’re happy to be on the podium again. It’s great to be in on Christmas and I know we’re all looking forward to getting ashore. It was a difficult leg, hard on the bodies, but everyone has held up well.”

At one point, with about 36 hours to go, the race tracker showed nothing to choose between Vestas and Dongfeng in terms of distance to finish. But in reality, the tactical situation favoured the Chinese/French boat.

“It was looking pretty close for a little while, but they were always ahead,” Towill said. “They were always comfortable. Brunel sailed well too so credit to them. It was challenging conditions and we’re all happy to be here and in one piece.”

For Team Brunel, this is a second consecutive mid-fleet finish. Skipper Bouwe Bekking knows it keeps his team in touch with leaders, but time is running out to make a charge for the podium on the overall leaderboard.

“It’s been a really hard leg. We always expected it would be tough and it lived up to that,” Bekking said. “Plenty of breeze and some awesome sailing as well.

“We don’t have any big issues. We could start for Leg 4 in 10 minutes! The boat has done incredibly well.”

Bekking also revealed that Annie Lush, injured earlier in the leg, has been taking light shifts on deck over the past couple of days — great news about one of the toughest sailors in the fleet.

Also worth noting is that Team Brunel posted the best 24-hour run so far on this leg, at 538.1 nautical miles, for an average speed of 22.4 knots. And that happened just yesterday.

“We had an excellent day on board Team Brunel in many ways,” Bekking wrote in his daily email on Sunday morning (24 December). “Not enough to overtake Vestas, but we haven't given up, we know strange things can happen…”

And that may well be his philosophy the rest of the way. Don’t give up; keep the pressure on, strange things can happen.

That means three boats will remain at sea for Christmas, with Sung Hung Kai/Scallywag battling to the end with Turn the Tide on Plastic for fifth place. Their ETA is currently around 4am Irish time/UTC on St Stephen’s Day.

Team AkzoNobel, with over 550 nautical miles to go at this point, isn’t expected to finish in Melbourne before 8am Irish time/UTC on Wednesday 27 December.

Leg 3 Provisional Results, Sunday 24 December at 11:30pm Irish time:

1. MAPFRE - Finished 16:07.21 UTC (14 days, 4 hours, 7 minutes, 21 seconds)
2. Dongfeng Race Team - Finished – 20:10:16 UTC (14 days, 8 hours, 10 minutes, 16 seconds)
3. Vestas 11th Hour Racing - Finished 21:52:11 UTC (14 days, 9 hours, 52 minutes, 11 seconds)
4. Team Brunel -- FINISHED – 23:36:27 UTC (14 days, 11 hours , 36 minutes, 27 seconds)
5. Team AkzoNobel - RACING
6. Turn the Tide on Plastic - RACING
7. Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag - RACING

Current Leaderboard:

1. MAPFRE - FINISHED - 29 points (after Leg 3)
2. Dongfeng Race Team - FINISHED - 23 points (after Leg 3)
3. Vestas 11th Hour Racing - FINISHED - 23 points (after Leg 3)
4. Team Brunel - FINISHED - 14 points (after Leg 3)
5. Team AkzoNobel - RACING - 7 points (after Leg 2)
6. Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag - RACING - 5 points (after Leg 2)
7. Turn the Tide on Plastic - RACING - 2 points (after Leg 2)

#VOR - The Spanish Volvo Ocean Race team MAPFRE has won Leg 3 from Cape Town to Melbourne, a 6,500 nautical mile dive into the fierce challenges posed by the Southern Ocean.

For the second consecutive leg, MAPFRE needed to come from behind to earn the victory. And for the second time in a row, it was Dongfeng Race Team they passed mid-stage, to snatch the win.

“We had to fight very hard for this victory,” skipper Xabi Fernández said moments after crossing the finish line in the early hours of Christmas morning in Melbourne. “There’s so much of the race to go. But for now it’s looking good and we’re very happy of course.”

The Southern Ocean pushed the teams to the limit. Extreme cold, storm force winds for days on end and towering seas posed massive seamanship challenges, let alone allowing for racing and tactics.

But of all the teams on Leg 3, MAPFRE had the highest work rate in terms of manoeuvres, which allowed them to stay in more favourable conditions for longer than their opposition. It was a powerful statement by a very strong crew.

“The strongest point for this team is the group of people we have,” Fernandez said. “They are so good and give us so much and have been working so hard on this leg. It was so tough, but it’s all gone perfect. Now we have a few days for recovery and we can get ready for the next one.”

MAPFRE started Leg 3 already atop the leaderboard, with a one point lead over Leg 1 winner Vestas 11th Hour Racing. But as this first Southern Ocean challenge is worth double points, the team will now open up a more comfortable margin – at least six points – depending on the finishing position of the chasing boats.

Dongfeng Race Team is currently in second place, trying to nurse home a boat with a damaged keel system. But at 4:30pm Irish time/UTC, Charles Caudrelier’s team had 45 miles to go with a 30-mile lead over Vestas 11th Hour Racing, who in turn were fighting off a late charge by Team Brunel a further 20 miles adrift.

Leg 3 Provisional Results, Sunday 24 December (Leg 3, Day 15) at 4:15pm Irish time:

1. MAPFRE - Finished 16:07.21 UTC (14 days, 4 hours, 7 minutes, 21 seconds)
2. Dongfeng Race Team - RACING
3. Vestas 11th Hour Racing - RACING
4. Team Brunel - RACING
5. Team AkzoNobel - RACING
6. Turn the Tide on Plastic - RACING
7. Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag - RACING

Current Leaderboard:

1. MAPFRE - FINISHED - 29 points (after Leg 3)
2. Vestas 11th Hour Racing - RACING - 13 points (after Leg 2)
3. Dongfeng Race Team - RACING - 11 points (after Leg 2)
4. Team AkzoNobel - RACING - 7 points (after Leg 2)
5. Team Brunel - RACING - 6 points (after Leg 2)
6. Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag - RACING - 5 points (after Leg 2)
7. Turn the Tide on Plastic - RACING - 2 points (after Leg 2)

#VOR - With just over 400 nautical miles to go to the finishing line off Melbourne, MAPFRE is on a final push to draw first blood on the double-point scoring Leg 3 of the Volvo Ocean Race.

Before they can add to their advantage on the leaderboard, the Spanish team must negotiate a pesky high-pressure system threatening to encroach from the west, bringing lighter winds, not to mention the tricky currents and tidal gates between them and the finish line.

But with a lead of nearly 100 nautical miles, they are in a very enviable position.

“It’s looking that way. It’s been a tough leg and until yesterday it’s been so tight with Dongfeng and we’ve been pushing so hard,” said skipper Xabi Fernández on Saturday afternoon (23 December). “Now it’s true, we have stretched a lot and if we don’t have any problem we should be all good.”

The key to being in this position today, Fernández explained, came from their strategy earlier in the leg, when they resisted the temptation to do something ‘crazy’ and instead just kept it close, tucked in tight behind Dongfeng when the Chinese/French team was the early leg leader.

“It was so important to always keep it tight. And sometimes the way to do that is to follow the leader. We fought very hard to keep it always close and then of course every new system is an opportunity for the guy behind and we took it. It was hard when we were chasing them – they are hard to catch – and then the feeling when we passed them is unbelievable.”

Behind the leading pair, there is intrigue in the battle for the final podium position between Vestas 11th Hour Racing and Team Brunel.

At one point last night, Brunel jumped ahead on the distance to finish measurement for a short burst, before the Vestas team clawed back the lead. And then skipper Charlie Enright and navigator Simon Fisher (SiFi) elected to go into Stealth Mode.

“We use Stealth Mode when there’s something going on tactically,” said SiFi. “Brunel have been chasing hard the last few days … and applying a bit of pressure.

“The gybe last night and our moment to choose when to come back to the north is important so we thought going in to Stealth Mode would keep them guessing a bit as to exactly where we are.

“There are some tactical options as to how far east/west you want to be when you start to head to Melbourne and if they don’t know where we are they’re forced to pick their own lane.”

Brunel has done that – and is charging ahead with the highest speed and racing in the strongest wind among the boats in the latest position report.

The question is whether Vestas 11th Hour Racing is seeing the same conditions. That will be revealed when they reappear at 7pm this evening Irish time/UTC.

For the chasing three, it’s a matter of getting far enough east to avoid the light winds of the high pressure system, before turning up north towards the finish. That left-hand turn will be welcomed by the crews, as each mile to the north brings warmer wind and water temperatures.

The ETA for MAPFRE is early tomorrow afternoon Irish time/UTC.

Leg 3 Position Report, Saturday 23 December (Day 14) at 1pm Irish time:

1. MAPFRE - DTF 429.9 nautical miles
2. Dongfeng Race Team +94.7 nautical miles
3. Vestas 11th Hour Racing (Stealth Mode)
4. Team Brunel +155.3
5. Sun Hung Kai / Scallywag +408.3
6. Turn the Tide on Plastic +440.9
7. Team AkzoNobel +822.4

#VOR - MAPFRE extended their lead over rivals Dongfeng Race Team on Thursday 21 December as Leg 3 of the Volvo Ocean Race entered its closing stages.

While the finish line isn’t quite in sight, the most physical element of the battle is in the rear-view mirror for the leaders.

Determined to notch up another victory after winning Leg 2 from Lisbon to Cape Town, MAPFRE skipper Xabi Fernández has been pushing his crew to the absolute limit as they close in on Melbourne.

In an effort to stay in front of Dongfeng after snatching the Leg 3 lead from them on Wednesday (20 December), MAPFRE gybed 16 times in less than 12 hours overnight as they skirted the Antarctic Ice Exclusion Zone (AIEZ).

It was twice as many as Dongfeng opted for, with each gybe requiring an incredible physical effort from each crew member, not to mention the slowing of the boat through the gybing process.

Yet the hard work paid off – and at 1pm Irish time/UTC, MAPFRE had more than doubled their lead of yesterday to 30 nautical miles, with less than 1,300 miles of the leg remaining.

The AIEZ, implemented by race control to keep the fleet away from the danger of icebergs, has started to drop away to the south for the leading duo, allowing them to dive into better breeze.

Once they feel they have the right angle on the westerly winds, both will point their bows towards Melbourne and begin their final dash to the finish line.

“The last day has been quite crazy here on MAPFRE,” Fernández said. “We’ve done so many manoeuvres. We have to go south now to get to the low pressure, and that’s why we’ve had to do so many gybes.

“It's pretty hard but it’s paid off. Now we are free to sail south all day and night, and tomorrow morning we will gybe and start heading north towards Melbourne.”

Team Brunel remained within 35 miles of third-placed Vestas 11th Hour Racing at the most recent position report, keeping alive skipper Bouwe Bekking's hopes of a first podium finish in this edition.

On sixth-placed Turn the Tide on Plastic, 400 miles behind MAPFRE, skipper Dee Caffari said a dark mood had lifted thanks to an improvement in the weather forecasts that could see them avoid getting swallowed up by a large high pressure system and therefore get to Melbourne quicker than first thought.

“It is not looking as bleak as it was before and this is giving us hope,” Caffari said. “We had three position reports in a row that were really bad and morale took a beating. I am a glass half full person and even I struggled with this one.

“However, finally we have had some wind that the others around us have not had and are making progress in the right direction for a change and it feels great.”

Meanwhile pods of Antarctic minke whales provided both Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag in fifth and seventh-placed Team AkzoNobel with some light relief as they charged past at speeds much faster than the Volvo Ocean 65s.

“It’s not every day you get to sail through the Southern Ocean with eight of your mates and an OBR and see that sort of thing,” Scallywag’s Tom Clout said. “It was a pretty cool little moment – one we’re going to remember for the rest of our lives.”

The current ETAs see MAPFRE and Dongfeng arriving on Sunday 24 December; Vestas, Brunel, Scallywag and Turn the Tide on Christmas Day; and AkzoNobel on Wednesday 27 December (all dates UTC).

Leg 3 Position Report, Thursday 21 December (Day 12) at 1pm Irish time:

1. MAPFRE - DTF 1,285.2 nautical miles
2. Donfeng Race Team +30.2 nautical miles
3. Vestas 11th Hour Racing +122.8
4. Team Brunel +158.7
5. Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag +335.8
6. Turn the Tide on Plastic +401.1
7. Team AkzoNobel +575.8

#VOR - A little over 2,000 miles now stand between the Volvo Ocean Race pace setters and the Leg 3 finish line in Melbourne – and with just eight miles splitting the first two teams on Tuesday, it couldn't be tighter at the top.

At 1pm Irish time/UTC, Dongfeng Race Team still maintained the lead they have enjoyed for the majority of the leg so far. But their ever-present adversaries MAPFRE, in close second, continued to make life difficult for them.

In fact, at one point overnight Xabi Fernández’s boat snatched the top spot from Charles Caudrelier and crew, only to have it wrestled back once more by the next sched.

The endless fight has left both teams exhausted, each wary of their opponents' next move.

“After nine days of racing and more than 3,000 miles I have started to hate the red boat of our Spanish friends,” Caudrelier said. “I heard that Xabi is an ex-biking champion, and as we say in France about biking, MAPFRE is ‘sucking our wheel’ -- following all our moves and waiting for an opportunity to attack.”

Fernandez, for his part, was equally cautious of his opponents: “[Dongfeng] are gaining a bit, slowly, but the mileage is going up and we are scratching our heads to keep the distance down and wait for our opportunity.”

Favourable north-westerly winds allowed the frontrunners to gybe right on the limit of the Antarctic Ice Exclusion Zone early on Tuesday (19 December) and point their bows towards the Melbourne finish line.

After days of having to perform gybe after gybe, often with no more than an hour between manoeuvres, the straight-line sailing was offering up a welcome break for both man and boat.

It also provides the navigators with a momentary break from the relentless Southern Ocean match racing that has dominated Leg 3.

Although the boats are going in a straight line for once, it's anything but easy sailing.

“The breeze isn’t mixing very well and the sea state seems to change quite quickly with the change in sea temperature, so constant adjustments are required,” Charlie Enright reported from Vestas 11th Hour Racing, in third place 79 miles behind the leading pair.

And while the battle between the teams continues in anger, all seven teams were racing the weather gods to stay ahead of a giant anticyclone forming to their east, threatening to swallow them up.

Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag and Turn the Tide on Plastic, some 200 miles west-north-west of the leaders, are expected to follow in the footsteps of Team Akzonobel by zigzagging south in a desperate attempt to hook onto the western edge of a cold front.

If they fail they could face more days at sea than expected – and greater pressure to perform a quick turnaround in Melbourne.

“We want to be going fast but we’re struggling a bit with the wind dropping,” said Turn the Tide’s Frederico Pinheiro de Melo. “Now we have to deal with the next high pressure. We need to stay in front of it otherwise we will stop and Scallywag will get away. The main goal now is to avoid the high pressure.”

Leg 3 Position Report, Tuesday 19 December (Day 10) at 1pm Irish time:

1. Dongfeng Race Team - DTF 2,151.2 nautical miles
2. MAPFRE +8.0 nautical miles
3. Vestas 11th Hour Racing +78.5
4. Team Brunel +104.0
5. Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag +181.5
6. Turn the Tide on Plastic +246.7
7. Team AkzoNobel +358.4

#VOR - The leading crews in the Volvo Ocean Race are currently in the middle of the most physically demanding hours of the race to date.

Dongfeng Race Team and MAPFRE are gybing back and forth and they zig-zag in an east-southeasterly direction, trying to stay as close as possible to the southern boundary of the race course imposed by the Antarctica Ice Exclusion Zone – a virtual line implemented to keep the crews away from dangerous icebergs.

“During the next 30 hours we are going to gybe at least every hour, so it’s just a nightmare,” said Dongfeng skipper Charles Caudrelier.

The reason is simple: Gybing these boats takes all hands. The off-watch crew is wakened and either brought on deck to assist with the manoeuvre or stay below to shift all the gear from one side of the boat to the other.

The entire procedure can take around 30 minutes of hard physical labour. And the leaders are gybing more than once per hour at the moment.

“It’s not a pleasure. You have to stack everything, so you have to move about 600 kilograms,” Caudrelier said. :The boat is moving, you can’t sleep, you have to change everything. It’s just horrible…

“But on the positive side, we are ahead of MAPFRE and fighting for first place. So it’s good!”

In his own report to race headquarters, MAPFRE navigator Juan Vila said: “We have been in visual sight of Dongfeng from the end of our night and all this morning, with both throwing gybes along the ice limit line, as winds are weak further to the north. From early this morning we have so far done 17 gybes in less than 11 hours.

“All is good on board and morale is high, especially now we are back in touch with the leader.”

They should be happy. Yesterday at this time, the gap to Dongfeng was over 15 miles. 24 hours later it is just five miles.

At the back of the fleet, Team AkzoNobel is back up to sailing at 100% after a second attempt at repairing its broken mast track held firm.

“We’ve loaded up the mainsail now and no dramas, it’s a way better job,” said Nicolai Sehested from on deck as he watched the sail load up. “We knew after we did this second one it would be a good one and now it’s holding.”

The team is sailing fast and making up miles; in fact, they’ve sliced their deficit by an incredible 125 miles over the past 24 hours.

That is partly a reflection of general compression in the fleet: the boats are all closer today than yesterday. But it’s certainly a good sign for Team AkzoNobel as they try to get back in touch on the race to Melbourne.

Leg 3 Position Report, Sunday 17 December (Day 8) at 1pm Irish time:

1. Dongfeng Race Team - DTF 3,103.3 nautical miles
2. MAPFRE +5.3 nautical miles
3. Vestas 11th Hour Racing +53.3
4. Team Brunel +74.3
5. Sun Hung Kai / Scallywag +83.1
6. Turn the Tide on Plastic +133.4
7. Team AkzoNobel +250.8

#VOR - It’s still blowing a solid 25 knots across most of the Volvo Ocean Race fleet on Friday morning (15 December), almost five days into Leg 3 from Cape Town to Melbourne.

This might seem like a bit of a respite, but in truth, clouds bring squalls that have wind gusts well over 40 knots. The Southern Ocean never stops.

At the head of the fleet, Dongfeng Race Team and MAPFRE are bouncing off the Antarctica Ice Exclusion Zone, trying to stay as far south as possible.

The southern routing is not only a shorter distance to Melbourne (think of the inside lane on a race track) but generally puts the boats in slightly stronger wind.

But the price comes at the cost of more manoeuvres. This is tiring on the crew and dangerous.

On Thursday (14 December), a poor gybe on board Team AkzoNobel resulted in damage to both the mainsail, the battens and most significantly, the mainsail track that holds the sail close to the mast. Making a repair at sea, in these conditions, is a daunting proposition.

Overnight, the team was sailing under headsail alone, and at one point Race Control telemetry indicated they were surfing down a 10-metre wave.

Nonetheless, the team is working diligently to get back on track. They’ve sailed further north; this should find them more moderate conditions and also slightly warmer temperatures. The warmth is a critical factor in allowing the epoxy glues they are using for the repairs to set.

For now it’s a waiting game to give the repair every chance of ‘sticking’ before trying to resume racing.

Not surprisingly, this had slid Team AkzoNobel out the back of the fleet, now nearly 300 miles behind the leaders.

But it’s not all doom and gloom out there. In fact, this has been one of the sunniest Southern Ocean passages in memory.

“Unbelievably sunny down at 42 South today, with big waves, 30kts breeze. Just gybed to stay the north of the ice gate,” read the instagram post from Abby Ehler on Friday morning, on board fourth-placed Brunel.

And it looks set to continue at least through the weekend.

Leg 3 Position Report, Friday 15 December at 7am Irish time:

1. Dongfeng Race Team - DTF 3,880 nautical miles
2. MAPFRE +15.8 nautical miles
3. Vestas 11th Hour Racing +101.7
4. Team Brunel +180.1
5. Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag +203.5
6. Turn the Tide on Plastic +230.8
7. Team AkzoNobel +290.0

#VOR - Faced with the tough decision of whether to take on the impending storm by diving south on a quicker but more risky route or escaping the worst of the weather to the north, each of the seven teams in the Volvo Ocean Race fleet have now thrown their cards on the table.

In a bold break from the rest of the fleet, British skipper Dee Caffari opted to take her young Turn the Tide on Plastic crew furthest to the north in the hope of dodging the worst of the system’s howling winds and forecast for enormous seas.

This is in contrast to the strategies of leg leader Dongfeng Race Team, MAPFRE, Team Akzonobel, Team Brunel and Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag, who have chosen to roll the dice and take the southern option.

Caffari, one of the world's most experienced and respected offshore sailors, is known for her seamanship. And as most of her team have never faced the Southern Ocean before, she and navigator Nico Lunven have picked a route that gives them more options, including not needing to throttle back as much as her counterparts in the south.

But as the storm is more than 400 nautical miles wide and moving quickly east, being swallowed up by it is inevitable – and it has been playing heavily on Caffari’s mind.

“I have had bad guts for 24 hours and I was thinking it may have been something I have eaten or drunk, but that is highly unlikely,” she wrote to race headquarters in a blog post.

“If I was honest it may be the responsibility sitting heavy on me to make the right decision and get boat and team through the next 48 hours unscathed. It is turning my stomach in knots, something I have never experienced before.”

Meanwhile, those on the southern route are facing challenges of their own. When the front hits they will almost certainly experience stronger winds, and unlike Turn the Tide on Plastic to the north, they have fewer options to escape.

A virtual exclusion zone south of the fleet has been implemented by race control to keep the fleet away from Antarctica’s ice fields, and the leaders are likely to gybe along the ice limit as they skirt the exclusion zone.

“I don't think we will be doing any racing over the next few hours,” Dongfeng skipper Charles Caudrelier said. “We want to sail fast but the main priority is not to break the boat or the crew.”

MAPFRE skipper Xabi Fernandez, just eight miles behind Dongfeng, added: “It’s going to be rough and cold but it's going to be good fun.”

Around 75 miles north of the leading pack, Vestas 11th Hour Racing were also bracing themselves for a battering. At 1pm Irish time, Charlie Enright’s crew were by far the fastest in the fleet, notching up 22.5 knots compared to Dongfeng’s 16.3.

“Feels like we’re manning battle stations and preparing for war,” navigator Simon Fisher said. His team may have chosen the best option, a middle ground to the north of the pack, but still in touch and with more options.

Wind speeds are now up to 25 knots and forecast to build. The next 48 hours will be crucial to success in Leg 3.

Leg 3 Position Report, Wednesday 13 December at 1pm Irish time:

1. Dongfeng Race Team - DTF 4,737.2 nautical miles
2. MAPFRE +8.0 nautical miles
3. Team AkzoNobel +18.8
4. Vestas 11th Hour Racing +19.4
5. Team Brunel +26.0
6. Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag +40.3
7. Turn the Tide on Plastic +93.4

#VOR - Charles Caudrelier’s Dongfeng Race Team and the Spanish MAPFRE squad were neck and neck leading the Volvo Ocean Race fleet out of Cape Town and towards the southernmost point of the African continent this afternoon (Sunday 10 December).

It was the 11th time in the history of the event that the fleet had raced out of Cape Town, this time on a 6,500-nautical-mile leg to Melbourne in Australia — with an ETA between Christmas Eve and St Stephen’s Day.

Conditions were ideal, with the famed Cape Doctor wind that caused some concern over the weekend blowing at 20-25 knots. The fleet raced around a short triangle course in front of the city before being freed to sprint off towards Australia.

There was some drama for the Dongfeng team, winners of Friday’s In-Port Race, who had to make a late crew change just before leaving the dock.

Daryl Wislang suffered a back strain this morning and the team decided not to risk having it flare up more while at sea. He stepped off the boat to be replaced by Fabien Delahaye.

The forecast is for very strong winds this evening and overnight, which should then ease for a brief respite, before strengthening again as the first of the Southern Ocean weather systems that will pick up the fleet and carry them to Melbourne comes calling.

“It is the worst sailing you can do but it’s also the absolute best,” said Stu Bannatyne, a three-time race winner on board Dongfeng, in reply to a question about the Southern Ocean.

“Fortunately it seems the human mind forgets the bad times and only remembers the good, which is why we keep coming back.”

That is a sentiment that is sure to be shared among the 63 sailors — and seven on-board reporters — over the coming days.

#MarineScience - Millions of tiny particles of plastic have been detected in European waters in groundbreaking scientific research conducted as part of the Volvo Ocean Race.

Using data collected by Turn the Tide on Plastic, which features Ireland’s own Annalise Murphy on deck, marine experts have identified over three million micro plastic particles per square kilometre of ocean.

The sub-surface data on micro plastic pollution levels was collected using a state-of-the-art instrument on board the Volvo Ocean 65 racing yacht.

The initial results, gathered during the Prologue stage and Leg 1 of the race between Lisbon and Alicante, were presented by Dr Toste Tanhua during the first morning of the two-day Volvo Ocean Race Ocean Summit, held in Cape Town stopover on Thursday (7 December). 

The samples collected during Leg 2 are currently being analysed and results will be revealed in due course.

“Our initial findings suggest that the levels of micro plastic in the ocean are significantly higher than we first expected,” said Dr Tanhua, who works at GEOMAR, an ocean research institute in Kiel, Germany.

“This is alarming as the micro plastic not only harms a wide range of marine life, but, through entering the food chain, in species such as tuna and mackerel, can cause harm to humans, too.”

Micro plastic refers to small particles of plastic often invisible to the naked eye – and which can take thousands of years to degrade.

Dr Tanhua continued: “Existing scientific data only accounts for around 1% of all plastic in the ocean – but thanks to the support of Volvo Ocean Race and Volvo Cars, and the efforts of the Turn the Tide on Plastic team in conducting this research, we’re building a knowledge base which is essential to ocean science around the globe.”

The Volvo Ocean Race Science Programme is funded by Volvo Cars, who are donating €100 from the first 3,000 sales of the new V90 Cross Country Volvo Ocean Race edition to support the initiative.

Consisting of three key pillars — meteorological data collection; scientific drifter buoy deployment; and on-board analysis of key metrics for ocean health (including salinity, partial pressure of CO2, dissolved CO2 and Chlorophyll-a) — the Science Programme aims to create a snapshot of the health of the oceans to help scientists worldwide.

Speakers at the second Ocean Summit of the 2017-18 Volvo Ocean Race included The Ocean Cleanup founder Boyan Slat, WWF’s John Duncan and Volvo Ocean Race skippers Charlie Enright of Vestas 11th Hour Racing and Dee Caffari of Turn the Tide on Plastic.

“This is a groundbreaking project, bringing sport and science together,” said Caffari, who is leading the team amplifying the United Nations Environment Clean Seas campaign. “As round-the-world sailors, we have seen first hand the growing problem of marine debris and plastic pollution – and now we are collecting reference data for scientists around the globe.

“The power that the Race’s sustainability focus and this Ocean Summit are having in Cape Town is incredible, and it’s fantastic to see the enthusiasm in the Host Cities that we visit.

“People are doing the little things – refusing plastic bags, disposable coffee cups and drinking straws – and through these very simple actions, we can make a big impact.”