The fleet of five hydrofoil-assisted 60-foot sailboats competing in The Ocean Race, including Rhode Island skipper Charlie Enright, are set to begin Leg 3 on Sunday in Cape Town, South Africa, bound for Itajaí, Brazil.
After the Brazil stopover, the fleet will head towards Newport for the only stopover in North America. The racing crews are expected to arrive May 10-11 and the family-friendly Ocean Race Newport Ocean Live Park opens to the public May 13-21.
Holding second overall after the first two legs is the 11th Hour Racing Team, skippered by Enright (Bristol, Rhode Island), with sponsorship from Newport-based sustainability organization 11th Hour Racing. The 11th Hour Racing crew placed second and third on the two completed legs and is 3 points behind race leader Holcim-PRB from Switzerland.
The longest leg in the history of the race
Leg 3, however, will test the sailors and their machines as never before. Racing in the treacherous Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean, South Polar Ocean, Austral Ocean), Leg 3 is the longest leg of the crewed circumnavigation race and the longest in the race’s 50-year history. The 12,750-nautical mile (14,672-statute mile) leg accounts for nearly 40 percent of the 32,000-nautical mile (36,825-statute mile) race and should take approximately 34 days.
This leg is one of the reasons that sailors commit to sailing The Ocean Race, but it is impossible to overestimate the significance of this leg or the challenge it poses for the sailors.
The leg takes the fleet past the world’s three great capes – Cape Town (South Africa), Cape Leeuwin (Australia), and Cape Horn (South America). Racing in the Roaring Forties and the Screaming Fifties, so named for the degrees of latitude they represent, the sailors enjoy long surfs at high speeds.
Along the way, they’ll battle furious storms, towering waves, and their own mental state, which will be challenged by sleep deprivation, freeze-dried food, and the deafening sounds of the hull banging over and through the waves.
In Southern Ocean, closest humans will be on the International Space Station
The sailors are never more on their own than when they’re racing in the Southern Ocean, and at one point between New Zealand and South America, the fleet will be near the most remote part of the planet. Point Nemo, at 48°52.6’S/123°23.6’W, is 1,670 statute miles from the nearest point of land and is officially the most remote spot on the planet. So remote that the closest human beings to the sailors are the astronauts in the International Space Station, orbiting Earth 250 miles above.
Due to the arduousness of the leg, it counts double in terms of points. The crews will be awarded points based on their order crossing the longitude of 166°25’ East (close to the western tip of New Zealand) and their finishing order in Brazil.
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