During the third leg of The Ocean Race, eleventh Hour Racing and 4 rival groups sailed throughout 15,000 miles of the Pacific Ocean and thru 18 totally different time zones navigating their manner from Cape Town, South Africa to Itajaí, Brazil. Even after such a labored journey, there wasn’t a winner to be topped, nor did a return to dry land present a second of relaxation for the crews; They’d simply reached the midway level within the mammoth race.
“It’s crazy,” says Charlie Enright, skipper of the eleventh Hour Racing ship after we spoke on video name. “Every single second was ruin, you know: physical tests, mental tests.”
The round-the-world race sees 5 groups race from Alicante, Spain to Genova (or Genoa), Italy – the good distance ‘round. Along the way, crews have anchored in Cabo Verde, Cape Town, Itajaí and Newport, Rhode Island. Last week, the boats sailed into port at Aarhus, Denmark, which marked the end of another leg. From there, they will set off on the home stretch and the end of a six-month long race.
This race is about more than covering distance. Along the route, teams are fighting to survive the elements across some of the most remote crossings on the planet, while collecting vital climate data from areas that traditional research vessels and cargo ships may never reach. For 11th Hour Racing, this meant dropping buoys fitted with sensors into the ocean, taking water samples and collecting all manner of readings about the conditions across the route they are sailing.
“The buoys that we drop, relative to the buoys that get dropped by traditional shipping routes, are even more valuable,” Enright said. “We feel like it’s our obligation, not solely as rivals on this race however as residents of this planet to do our half.
“But it doesn’t develop into a aggressive drawback as a result of we’ve labored so onerous to make it a part of the race. Every boat is coping with the identical issues and are required to drop these buoys, but it surely doesn’t really feel like a requirement as a result of all people’s behind the mission.”
While the distant places the groups sail by may be nice for scientists, it offers a complete different problem for the skipper and his crew. Enright describes waves so huge that ships simply “surf” down them, in addition to 60 mph winds, 60-foot waves and situations that make the group in the reduction of on dangerous maneuvers that might be “just unreasonable.”
Crews should be ready for any situation as they’re always “as far from land as you could possibly be.” As such, the eleventh Hour Racing group brings every thing from energy instruments to supplies and elements to make sure they’ll end no matter what goes mistaken.
“You’re always racing,” says Enright. “You’re always trying to do [repairs] as fast as possible, but then you’re also trying to do it within reason and in line with the competition, the weather – all the things that are normal drivers for any decision that we have to make onboard.”
In previous legs, the crew has patched two broken rudders – regardless of solely carrying one spare with them – and the group was pressured to repair its mainsail after a three-foot rip appeared within the carbon fiber sail. Racing with a broken sail may severely hamper the group’s tempo, however slowing to a cease and taking time on repairs additionally eats into their place in what stays a round-the-world race.
Now, the group finds themselves main the pack after they gained the race throughout the Atlantic Ocean and into port in Denmark. To hold them at the entrance of The Ocean Race, eleventh Hour Racing depends on its 60-foot Imoca Class vessel, which Enright shares with 4 rotating group mates, together with Simon Fisher, Jack Bouttell, Justine Mettraux and the group’s media member, Amory Ross.
The crew’s subsequent leg will start after they depart from Denmark on June 8 with the goal of racing to The Hague within the Netherlands. After that, they may race on the ultimate leg and into Genova, Italy subsequent month.
Source: jalopnik.com