Volvo Ocean: Give them 9 Days they'll Give you the Atlantic

Leg 7 Volvo Ocean Race Teams Fleet out Newport US waters heading Transatlantic course Lisbon Portugal.

What have you been up to in the past nine days? These guys sailed across the entire Atlantic Ocean in what is considered one of the most extreme world regatta today. Teams of the Volvo Ocean Race crossed the entire Atlantic tricky waters faster than most modern cargo ships do in this time and era. How did they do it? Riding the Azores, maximizing the Currents and hooking onto Portuguese Trade Winds. 

On May 27th the Volvo Ocean Race Leg 7 across the Atlantic was over leaving behind 9 days of intense tight raw sailing battle which took place in the middle of the open North Atlantic ocean. Teams sailed from Newport US to Lisboa Portugal. Leg 7 was tight, all Teams reached destination in 9 days with just minutes and hours of distance from each other -an incredible fact considering the distances which Volvo Teams covered. 

Team Brunel took the lead of the Leg with 9 days 11 hours 9 minutes, breathing on their neck and taking second Team MAPFRE reached port just 22 minutes later.

Just one hour and thirty minutes later positions third and fourth were defined at the Portuguese finish line. Team Alvimedica reached Lisboa third after sailing 9 days 12 hours and 50 minutes and just one minute later Dongfeng Race Team followed taking port fourth.

Teams had to move from open Atlantic ocean waters to inside Lisbon River -waters known for defining positions with low winds in previous Volvo Ocean Race editions. 

"In the river we engaged in an exhausting battle with Dongfeng where we made some 20 maneuvers. Our plan was to stay towards land regarding the leading group, we did not know if this would work so well but everyone battled until the end," Charlie Enright from the US sailing for Team Alvimedica stated. 

Taking fifth positions Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing finished Leg 7 after 9 days 13 hours and 24 minutes. Team SCA took sixth position with 9 days 15 hours and 32 minutes. 

The overall Race positions -dictated by the positions of all Legs shaked up. Abu Dhabi leads the overall positions, Dongfeng follows second, Team Brunel is third, MAPFRE fourth, Alvimedica fifth, SCA sixth, and Vestas Wind's seventh. Nothing is yet defined final legs remain.

Leg 7 the Trans-Atlantic leg spans 2.8 thousand nautical miles. “The sailing can be rough and emotions are high as the fleet goes back to Europe, home of the race,” Race meteorologist Gonzalo Infante stated. 

Infante described the Leg as “Symbolic”, ”in for rough weather”, “low pressure speed riding”, “taking to the north Atlantic ice limits” with the final “dive south heading set for Portugal”. 

AFP described Leg 7 as the “Epic Atlantic Duel” with Teams “tussling for the lead”. Bound by the Azores High athletes leaving Newport had to escalate North-East until reaching Atlantic Ice Limits and then East further into the North Atlantic to finally drop South-East at ends of the Azores. Teams did all this in 9 days of speed sailing. 

“Around this archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean lies the so-called Azores High. This is a semi-permanent area of high pressure that lies in more or less the same place all the year round. 

You could regard the area as a dartboard. At the bull’s-eye there is no wind. Zero! The further you sail to the edge of the dartboard, the more wind you have. If you draw an imaginary line from Newport to Lisbon, it goes straight through the heart of the Azores High. So straight through the bull’s-eye – the place where no one wants to sail,” Team Brunel Stefan Coppers explained why the direction strategy chosen by all Teams. 

Another element which Teams had to face was the Gulf Current. “If you exit the Gulf Current you are out of the game,” Charles Caudrelier of Dongfeng stated.

Fortunately for the Teams they did not encounter extreme weather nor massive winds or swells. The Transatlantic Leg 7 of the Volvo Ocean Race has in previous versions sunk ships to the depths and even cost the life of an athlete. 

“The Leg is tough, difficult and dangerous,” MAPFRE stated. 

From start to finish line Volvo Teams sailed so close to each others that they could see the entire fleet. The day before reaching port -24 hours for end goal Teams were still sailing tight even after having undergone the entire challenges which the Atlantic Ocean can throw at sailor. 

“With just 24 hours to go until their arrival in Lisbon, the sailors are giving their all to grab a place on the podium,” Volvo reported. International press reported that the “pressure was piling up”. 

It is a “500 miles speed test,” Dongfeng Race Team stated one day to finish line. 

“The guys aren’t really chatty this morning. Their faces are tired and their eyes struggling to stay open. They do their watches, they eat, and they go to sleep. The night has been violent, you see. Lots of reefs taken in and out and, most importantly, a sail change from the Fractional to the J1. In the middle of the night...changing the foresail for the J1 is not what you would spontaneously choose to do,” Dongfeng Race Team stated. 

24 hours before reaching Lisboa MAPFRE stated that “the way of winning is watch by watch". “This is decided in the 90th minute,” MAPFRE assured. 

Spirits onboard the all-female team SCA were slightly different 24 hours to finish line. “What a beautiful sight – Alvimedica on the horizon. Yesterday morning was grey and drizzly but we could spot one boat and the morning position report revealed that despite the night's light wind involving sleeping in the head we managed to climb up…” SCA´s positive attitude is just one of the elements which makes them worthy of international respect. SCA unlike other teams which have abandoned or not departed has practically made it around the entire world. 

Every Team recognized that the river entrance to Portugal was key in the final positions, specially when they sailed so tight. On day 9th Teams entered the final stretch and river Portugal waters.  

...And just like that before those following the race could have enough of it...with the speed of the Atlantic Azores the Volvo Ocean Race Leg 7 was over. Volvo Leg 7 left a sweet taste and concealed the glory the transatlantic crossing in modern times of sailing sports. 

Give Volvo Ocean Race Teams just 9 days and they will give you the entire Atlantic ocean. 

Leg 8 will take Teams from Lisbon to Lorient, France after which they will sail to Gothenburg, Sweden to the finish line. 11 ports and every continent, 38.739 nautical miles Volvo Ocean an Ocean Race unlike no other.