Global Ocean Race - Freedom from the Leg 2 Ice Limit

As the sun rose over the double-handed, Global Ocean Race (GOR) fleet at 02:00 GMT on Wednesday morning, the five Class40s were approaching the eastern extremity of the GOR’s Leg 2 ice limit in the Western Indian Ocean at 49 degrees East. At the front of the fleet, Halvard Mabire and Miranda Merron on Campagne de France had extended their lead since overtaking Conrad Colman and Sam Goodchild with Cessna Citation just under 24 hours earlier and Ross and Campbell Field on BSL in third continued in their role as southernmost boat in the fleet with the leading trio separated by 19 miles after eight days at sea. 

Trailing the Fields by 191 miles, Marco Nannini and Hugo Ramon on Financial Crisis in fourth place squeezed three miles into their lead over Nick Leggatt and Phillippa Hutton-Squire on Phesheya-Racing overnight and were seven miles ahead of the South African team at dawn. Nick Leggatt and Phillippa Hutton-Squire are familiar with high-latitude sailing, but the environment at 41 degrees South is always spectacular, if a little grey: 

“A watery sun rose through dawn drizzle which later gave way to low grey clouds,” reported Nick Leggatt on Wednesday morning. “The sea is a similar slate colour and early on it was uncomfortably confused and choppy, but it’s now settled into a more regular pattern and Phesheya-Racing is starting to move along nicely again.” Sailing 960 miles south of Madagascar, the closest landmass to Leggatt and Hutton-Squire is the Prince Edward Islands, currently 360 miles off their starboard quarter. “A quick glance at the chart showed the reason for the rough patch of water earlier on - we had just crossed the Southwest Indian Ridge where the bottom of the sea suddenly rises from 3,000 or 4,000 metres deep to as little as 175 metres in the space of a few miles, before plunging back down again,” explains Leggatt who sailed over a particularly shallow area of the ridge known as the Discovery Fracture Zone. 

“We were lucky to cross the shallow waters on a relatively benign day, when it was just uncomfortable - in a gale, it can churn up very steep waves.” Studying the electronic chart, Leggatt’s mind began to wander: “What if you changed our latitude from south to north and the longitude from east to west?” he asks. “Interestingly, you would not be far from the position where the Titanic sank 99 years ago!” Sailing 30 miles north of the GOR’s Leg 2 Ice Limit, the coincidence is poignant. “Luckily for us, the Global Ocean Race course has waypoints that we need to keep north of to ensure that we stay away from areas of suspected icebergs in the Southern Hemisphere,” Leggatt adds.

At 11:21 GMT on Wednesday, Mabire and Merron took Campagne de France around the end of the ice limit leading the fleet and freeing off on port gybe, dropping south averaging slightly under ten knots. “On our chart we had marked the end of the ice limit with a northern cardinal buoy icon which we must leave with starboard,” explains Mabire. “In fact, sailing along the ice limit has been a bit like a long coastal race,” he adds. “We were a little disappointed that there wasn’t a GOR Committee Boat there to make sure we left the virtual mark to starboard, but there isn’t a race organisation on the planet that would do this. We would have happily given some interviews, posed for a few photos and a bit of video,” suggests the French skipper. “Perhaps it’s an idea for the next edition of the Global Ocean Race – it’s got to be more entertaining down here in the middle of nowhere than in a freezing race office in the Northern Hemisphere.”