Mark Chisnell Volvo Ocean Race blog #2
by B&G 22 Oct 2014 11:46 BST
9 October 2014
VOR Race Tracker for 18th October 2014 © VOR
Mark Chisnell reports on the first full week of action in the Volvo Ocean Race. A week in which a broken rudder and the Cape Verde Islands created the first truly significant split in the fleet – a split that's still playing out.
As the pack reach the Doldrums, the outcome looks good for Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing and Team Brunel.
Deeply Unpleasant Schedules
It couldn't last – all that tight inshore racing. The Atlantic Ocean is too big a place to roam around in a pack, and sooner or later something was always going to create a split – it turned out to be a broken rudder and the Cape Verde Islands.
Last Tuesday we left the fleet north of the Canary Islands, tracking close to the coast of Africa. There were some deeply unpleasant schedules immediately afterwards with not much wind around - but no one managed to make any kind of breakaway. Everyone wanted to stay close to the coast, because the sea/land transition, and the thermal differences found there, will create wind even when there is very little gradient breeze.
Read Mark Chisnell's latest blog post here