The roll of the dice….

Camper in the Volvo Ocean Race

9/10/11

24 hours ago as we entered the Bay of Palma it very quickly dawned on us that we had managed to be the first boat there, which was somewhat a surprise. And what made our arrival even better was our welcoming party of our good friends from Camper.

Not far behind, the big black and red sea monster emerged around the corner and did a great job of getting into us in a classic tussle up to the ‘Cathedral marker’ not far off the waterfront in Palma. They managed to sneak around us just prior to the mark and then lead us back out of the Bay. The good news was their lead didn’t last for long as we soon reeled them in and passed them heading home towards Alicante.

The biggest tactical decision of Leg 0 was soon looming, to ‘shoot the gap’ between Ibiza & Formanterra, or go high and back over the top of Ibiza where there looked to be the best of what little breeze there was. As Nico said, “When you are in the lead and have to make a call like that, it’s a bit of a roll of the dice.”

As we sat there parked up just to the north of Ibiza I began to get a growing feeling, (when I mean growing, I mean, like that of another boats sails on the horizon getting bigger and bigger), that maybe the dice wasn’t falling our way.

“Full credit to the trailing boats; Puma, Telefonica & Sanya,” said Nico, “those guys all made the right call to go around the other side, we thought we were going to the weather side of the island, but what eventually happened was we ended up on the leeward side and they got the better breeze.”

As a result I think those boats are pretty much home in Alicante, we on the other hand are watching the sunrise, some 60 miles out having a close little battle with Groupama to see who can make it home first.

For sure this is a stark illustration of just how costly good or bad decisions can be. In this case, very costly- the difference between getting home to watch the All Blacks or not… Just as long as they make the semi finals it won’t matter at all!

HAMISH