Stu Bannatyne: And we are racing

Stu Bannatyne gets ready to leave for the opening leg of the Volvo Ocean Race. Photo / Chris Cameron

Opinion

40 hours into the race and the whole fleet is compressed and in sight again, except of course Abu Dhabi and Team Sanya.

I really feel for the guys on both boats having been in that situation before.

In 2005 on Movistar we crashed out on the first night of the race after landing off a big wave and broke the boat. On two other occasions I have experienced a broken mast on around the world races so I know what they are feeling- a feeling of having all the hard work you have put in in the lead up undone in a split second. Literally shattering.

We can only hope that Abu Dhabi and Team sanya can get back into this race as soon as possible.

The in port racing around the bay was as expected, a full frenzy for the crews. Our philosophy on Camper was to keep it as simple as possible. This seemed to work as we powered away from the start with a masthead code zero and were in the lead at the first mark.

A bunch of frenzied mark rounding's, gibes and tacks later and we were finally leaving Alicante on our way to Cape Town.

As night fell on the first night at sea the breeze built, the waves built and all of us were subjected to a night at sea that can only be described as brutal.

At times seeing gusts over 40 knots and short sharp seas was a huge test for our crew, boat and sails.

In these conditions simple aspects of your daily routine, normally easy tasks such as having breakfast, getting in and out of bed (not that we actually did much of that) and going to the toilet became next to impossible. With the boat lurching around the basic act of standing up and walking to the back of the boat was reduced to a crawl.

Despite all of this, with some sound navigation good seamanship we were able to come through unscathed and in the lead as we approached Gibraltar closely followed by the three Juan K designed boats; Telephonica, Puma & Groupama.

Once out of the Med the breeze began to falter and the last 12 hours has seen us struggle to find our way through the minefield of light air holes.

And so with all boats in eyeshot of us again, we restart the long leg to Cape Town.