The second leg of the Volvo Ocean Race took place on Sunday 5th November from Lisbon in Portugal towards Cape Town (South Africa), a 7,000-mile leg. Dongfeng then took the lead of the fleet during the night of 8th to 9th November, keeping his rivals at a distance.
It was therefore only logical that Charles Caudrelier's crew crossed the Equator first, crossing the famous zero latitude this morning at around 09:40 UTC. A passage awaited by some of the sailors on board, such as Jack Bouttell and the Onboard Reporter Jérémie Lecaudey, who did not miss out on the tradition of hazing. An experience that was not necessarily reassuring for Jack, who admitted to having "a little scared, especially after Stu told me about his experience crossing Ecuador. "He told me they shaved off his hair and tied him up on deck for a few hours reaching in 30 knots of wind..."
So it was Stu Bannatayne, who counts no less than seven Volvo Ocean Race, who led the ceremony and named these two newcomers
"In the end, we're just going to cross an imaginary line that separates the North and South of our planet." said Jérémie Lecaudey a few days ago. That was before he found himself on deck, dressed in his underpants, spread with smoothie, as well as with the remains of lyophal marinated for the occasion, for the past 4 days, in a bucket at the back of the boat. You've been told, "a healthy dose of creativity..."
Behind them, the other four boats in the leading pack quickly followed, and were crossing the Equator in turn a few minutes/hours later. Here are the crossing times:
1 - Dongfeng Race Team: 9 h 41 UTC
2 - MAPFRE: 9:57 a.m. UTC
3 - Vestas 11th Hour Racing: 10:26 a.m. UTC
4 - Team Brunel: 10 h 35 UTC
5 - team AkzoNobel: 11:26 UTC
6 - Turn the Tide on Plastic: 15:38 UTC
7 - Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag: 16:03 UTC
The times of passage, symbolic of this north/south transition, perfectly reflect the ranking, and the meagre distance separating Dongfeng from its first pursuer MAPFRE, which was less than 3 nm away at 1300 UTC.
" The good news is that we had a favourable cloud this morning, which helped us regain a bit of a lead over MAPFRE. Since the start, as soon as we take the slightest advantage, the fleet comes back thanks to the clouds. We saw it when we passed through the Doldrums, they almost overtook us" said Charles Caudrelier, who has managed to control his direct pursuers so far.
Unlike the previous edition, this time the boats won't need to sail around Fernando de Noronha (a Brazilian archipelago 220 nautical miles off Fortaleza), which has been withdrawn from the course this year, to give the seven Volvo Ocean 65s carte blanche. In view of the weather forecasts, the crews should still be able to keep to their current course, as a steady wind awaits them 1000 nm further south of the course.
