Team SCA in the Volvo Ocean Race - Quotes from the Dock

"This has been a different leg. In Leg 4 we finally had some Volvo-type weather. It was quite windy out of the bay of Sanya and we were in good shape and we made a decision and led the split off. Going really well for the first 7-10 days and right up there matching with Brunel. A bit of gear failure, which was challenging but we got some Wet and windy conditions which we were handling quite well. At the end 20 days later finishing within 5 miles of Brunel finishing 35 miles behind the leaders. Our tme gap is improving as well.We are always improving, we have a way to go but we have time to do it.We expected a beating leaving Sanya and coming through Luzon Strait but a lot of weather for a while. 

 

Hard conditions when you have the water in your face the whole time but we were prepared for it and we saw our fair share of hard times.We made a couple of mistakes: choice of sail changes and timing; gear failure which was out of our hands. But we are learning from our mistakes, it is a slow learning curve but that is the nature of this sport."    Stacey JacksonI think this leg more than any other, pretty much the second we left Sanya, we were leaving the Buddha behind us and we were already talking about arriving in New Zealand and we were so excited to get to New Zealand because the first week was just horrific, the sea state was terrible and it was really hard being onboard. 

It was tough, so we decided to take a dive to the east and we were kind of relieved to see someone follow us so at least we had someone along with us. That was pretty exciting for quite a while, it was going well and then unfortunately we didn't quite take the right moment to cash in on all the gains we made and we ended up in less pressure than we thought but we ended up back next to MAPFRE and Dongfeng so for the rest of the race we were next to them for quite a few days, gaining a mile here, losing a mile there and I think we dropped the ball when we had a bad night, some clouds and didn't sail too well, so they gained some miles and we are here today 40 miles behind them and I think that shows what this race is like, it is relentless, it is tough, and you let up for one minute and that's it – that's one design racing for you.(www.teamsca.com)