No choice but to take a gamble in Doldrums

OCEAN RACE DIARY:WE'VE TAKEN a gamble on board Green Dragon as we head across the Pacific Ocean into the Doldrums, and of course we hope it pays off.

At the moment we are almost 200 miles further east than the rest of the fleet. We believe this will set us up for the best passage through the Doldrums, where the wind is notoriously fickle and fluky. We’re already making gains and on Sunday night we overtook Telefonica Blue, putting us in fourth place and within 130 miles of the leaders.

We have steady wind here at the moment of between 14 to 16 knots, so I think we’re having a better time than our opposition.

In some ways we had no choice but to try a different strategy. The leading boats, with their heavier keels, are just much faster yachts than the Dragon, so to simply follow them would certainly see us remain at the back of the fleet. We’re endeavouring to do whatever it takes to get any advantage with the wind strength and direction.

We really need to get back in touch with the leaders before the next scoring gate, which is a line of latitude running from New Zealand’s North Island to Chile. There are four valuable points up for grabs for the team which crosses the line first.

So far the Dragon seems to be holding up quite well with no major breakages. We did have a bit of drama the other night when we got something caught on the keel. It was quite windy at the time, around 20 knots, so we had to lower the foresail and back down, costing us around four miles. The following day we had to sail for about an hour without our mainsail as we had to repair a batten socket, but all in all it wasn’t too bad.

The Pacific Ocean is quite a lonely place. When we passed Japan we were surrounded by 85 trawlers at one stage (yes, I counted them!), but since then we’ve seen hardly anything. In five days we’ve not seen any ships and very little wildlife – no birds, and only one pod of dolphins. We did see a huge whale, which was a little close for comfort as we narrowly avoided a collision.

A few days ago we crossed over the Mariana Trench, which is the deepest part of the world’s oceans at over 10 kilometres deep. In a few days we’ll pass leeward of the Eniwetok Atoll, a sea volcano which is now essentially a lagoon with an outer rim of low-lying islands. I hope we get close enough to see it.

Right now we’re aiming at Fiji, which will put us bang in the middle of the Pacific. Funnily enough, like every other island out here, we seem to be magnetically drawn to it and at the moment are right on course to hit it!

It’s been incredibly wet on the boat as we’re constantly bombarded with waves crashing over the yacht. The spray is blinding, so we have to wear goggles and helmets to see the instruments and what we’re doing. But it doesn’t matter how good the gear is, nothing will keep you dry in these conditions.

But it’s fast, exhilarating sailing so there aren’t many complaints from the guys, even though they are soaked to the skin.

As we get closer to the equator it’s getting very hot and sticky. The Doldrums aren’t all bad news, though, as we’ve had some fresh water showers this morning which have just been bliss – one of life’s only luxuries here. Up until now we’ve still been in the same gear that we were wearing when we left the dock in China, so we were a bit smelly to say the least!

We are in good spirits and our two new boys are settling in well. Dutchman Wouter Verbraak has replaced Ian Moore on this leg as navigator. He sailed with Team Russia before and is doing a great job. It’s certainly not an easy task, especially as the fleet have been out of sight of satellites at various points, so we have limited weather information.

Anthony Merrington had to stand down with a bad back, so Chris Main from New Zealand is with us. Most of us have sailed with him in the past, which makes it easy. It’s been great to hear some new stories on board on such a ridiculously long leg.

We also heard that Damian (Foxall) has been awarded Irish Sailor of the Year, so we’re all really pleased for him.

We should have reached the equator by the early hours of this morning, which will be the first real milestone on this trip. We sailed over 2,600 miles in the first seven days – roughly the same distance from New York to Galway – and yet there are still around 9,000 miles to Rio, so this really is a mammoth journey.

We’re all focused now on getting through the Doldrums as swiftly as possible and hoping that our decision to go east was the right one.