Date 6 June 2005
Location Boston Harbour
Weather Foggy
Leg 5 result Seventh
Leg 5 of the Global Challenge has been an eventful leg and one that has felt longer than any of the others.
It took a while to get into this leg's racing. We had demons from Leg 4 still around, I had flu, we were straight away into down wind hot conditions and the crew were restless quickly after the action-packed Southern Ocean we had left behind. The other factor for this leg is that it was the last big one.
Relatively speaking, the next two legs are short sprints and are all making our way home and there was a certain realisation onboard that plans needed to be made for life after the race. Many ambitions have changed and individual directions have been altered over the last few months so plans are being hatched for new ideas and ways of life.
The sailing has been a mixed pot of sorts. We sailed up the Southern Atlantic in record speeds pushing the Challenge arrival window in Boston. Even the doldrums didn't hold us up. We are still waiting for the torrential downpours that warrant the shampoo being on deck. It was the Northern Atlantic that manifested twists and turns and unexpected conditions. The number of hours spent drifting, starring at a log reading 0.0 are endless. Being hot and not moving resulting in a swim mid Atlantic was entertaining to say the least. Conversely to hunt the depths of the sail locker for the smaller sails as the wind was blowing gale force and above was a welcomed shock to the system and helped blow some cobwebs away and give the leggers onboard a taste of life at an angle.
The weather has produced many changes in position across the fleet on a regular basis. This had led to extreme high points and some huge frustrations as yet again you are stopped in a wind hole only to watch those nearest to you sail away relatively unaffected. We had a stunning run up through the fleet and even surprised ourselves in our ability to reach third place. It was great to see as it gave a huge boost to some despondent thoughts being harboured by some. We were at one stage 167 miles behind and we sailed really well to climb our way through. The biggest and greatest achievement was to be in amongst BP Explorer, Stelmar and Spirit of Sark.
These three yachts in particular hold a very special place in the minds of the crew of 'Imagine it. Done.' Once we had lost out to the leaders to hold our podium position, our focus changed towards the three amigos. For the last six days of this leg we have sailed within sight of at least one of them, and when the fog came down we had them tracked on the Radar. This match racing stayed with us right up to the finish line as we finished four minutes behind BP Explorer and two minutes behind Spirit of Sark. Yet again they stole position places from us. It was great racing to the wire and we finished the leg exhilarated as well as frustrated. Second time we have been beaten to the line so we have a project for the remaining legs and we do not want to see it happen a third time.
So a mid fleet finish in seventh position is better than we had anticipated in the early stages of the leg. As for our demons and yet again the race to the finish in light and patchy breeze in company, we shall push to avoid this happening again, however, with Ocean Racing, luck and weather still hold the trump cards.
Dee Caffari/Yachting World, 7 June 2005
