The Southern Ocean Bares Her Teeth

After 48 hours of building wind and seas, with gusts over 40 knots and waves approaching 7 metres, conditions are starting to moderate on Sunday with the IMOCA fleet turning south to squeeze between Cape Horn and the ice exclusion zone.






The wind is in the 18-22 knot range and the waves are 5 metres and decreasing. That's still plenty of motion on an IMOCA, making movement on board difficult, but slightly better than over...

Lining up for the Horn

Cape Horn is just over 1000 miles away, but they will be hard-earned miles...
The teams have the end of the hardest part of the longest leg in the history of The Ocean Race in sight.






On Friday afternoon UTC, the most iconic of landmarks to offshore sailors - Cape Horn - lies just over 1000 miles to the east.

But those miles won't come easily. Gale force winds and 6-8 metre seas are on the menu...

Close together, far from home



The Ocean Race is still racing close together as they approach the most isolated place on the planet

The four IMOCAs charging towards Cape Horn are approaching Point Nemo on Tuesday.



Defined as the most isolated, remote place on earth, Point Nemo is a spot in south Pacific Ocean, 2,688 kilometres from the nearest land. In fact, the closest sign of civilisation is the International Space Station, orbiting...

On Saturday it seemed as if the race couldn't get any closer. By Sunday morning UTC that was proved wrong.

Today, all four teams are lined up on a 13 mile line extending north to south, but separated by less than 3 miles on the leaderboard. All this after three full weeks of racing.









The reason for the close racing remains a stubbornly persistent ridge of high pressure and its light winds that is...

Steady progress towards Cape Horn
As four IMOCAs march past the halfway point of leg 3 in southern latitudes, GUYOT environnement - Team Europe starts sailing towards Brazil to rejoin the next leg...




Team Holcim PRB retains its lead on Thursday, as the fleet compresses to within 100 miles.




As per the forecast yesterday, the leader is slowing slightly and the trailing boats are nibbling into the lead, but little has changed...

Repairs and racing along the ice limit

The race continues while each team battles to keep boats operating in racing trim




Following the distribution of points at the scoring gate on Sunday, teams are now consolidating their positions and working through job lists to keep the boats in racing condition.

On Monday evening, 11th Hour Racing Team revealed the latest challenge for their crew to overcome - a badly torn mainsail, along a load-bearing...

Record breaking day for IMOCA fleet in the deep south
As the fleet races towards the scoring gate, records are being broken...







It's been a record-breaking day in The Ocean Race as the four IMOCAs racing through the south are pressing hard to gain position - and points - at the leg 3 scoring gate.

Conditions have certainly been favourable for making big mileage - long hours of daylight, a near perfect wind angle and speed (around...

It's an interesting day in The Ocean Race with quick moving weather making for a day of transitions in the southern latitudes.

The big winner over the past 24 hours is second placed Biotherm, who have gained over 30 miles on Team Holcim-PRB.









At the other end of the spectrum, 11th Hour Racing Team appear to be in danger of dropping off the back of a weather system and are making a noticeable dive to the south,...

Holcim PRB leads fleet east while GUYOT environnement turns back to Cape Town



Two teams suffered setbacks over the past 24 hours with GUYOT environnement electing to return to Cape Town while Team Malizia is down a sail...








It's been a busy 24 hours in The Ocean Race, with the fleet pushing east at pace, trying to hold on to the strong winds of a southern latitude low pressure system.

Team Holcim...

Breeze on as fleet encounters first southern weather system



The Ocean Race 2022-23 - 28 February 2023, Leg 2 Strong winds on Day 2 onboard GUYOT environnement - Team Europe.? Charles Drapeau / GUYOT environnement - Team Europe
As The Ocean Race fleet heads further south, conditions change dramatically



[VIDEO]https://youtu.be/OZNoph75HeQ[/IMG]

The wind has arrived for leg 3 of The Ocean Race as the five IMOCA teams settle into...