Leg 1
Alicante to Cape Town
The first test for the crews on Leg one will be the Straits of Gibraltar. The stretch of water is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world and the straits, and will provide plenty of challenges for the crew onboard Green Dragon. The winds funnel through the Straits between the high land either side and they then spread out either side thereafter, the local effects can mean shift conditions and there is the potential for the first leg to be won or lost right here.
On a net basis, water continually flows eastward into and through the Strait of Gibraltar, due to an evaporation rate within the Mediterranean basin higher than the combined inflow of all the rivers that empty into it. The sill of the Strait of Gibraltar acts to limit mixing between the cold, less saline Atlantic water and the warm Mediterranean waters. The latter are so much saltier that they sink below the constantly incoming Atlantic water and form a highly saline (thermohaline, both warm and salty) bottom water, called the Mediterranean outflow. A density boundary separates the layers at about 100 metres (330 ft) depth. It flows out and down the continental slope, losing salinity, until it equilibrates after mixing at a depth of about 1,000 metres (3,300 ft). The Mediterranean outflow water can be traced for thousands of kilometers before losing its identity.
Internal waves (waves at the density boundary layer) are common in the strait. Like traffic merging on a highway, the water flow is constricted in both directions because it must pass over a shallow submarine barrier, the Camarinal Sill. When large tidal flows enter the Strait, internal waves are set off at the Camarinal Sill as the high tide relaxes. The waves—sometimes with heights up to 100 metres (330 ft) travel eastward. Even though the waves occur at great depth and the height of the waves at the surface is almost nothing, they can be traced in the sunglint because they concentrate the biological films on the water surface, creating slight differences in roughness. The waves flow eastward, refract around coastal features; can be traced for as much as 100 kilometres (62 mi), and sometimes create interference patterns with refracted waves
Cape of Good Hope
Discovered by Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Diaz in 1488, the Cape of Good Hope initially bore the self-explanatory name “Cape of Storms”, before being given its current denomination by João II, King of Portugal. The monarch decided that this landmark, symbol of new commercial routes towards the East, should be seen as the threshold of new and promising horizons… hence its optimistic connotation. Nevertheless, the area quickly became quite well known among sailors for its dangers, and the legend of Adamastor, the spirit of the Cape of Storms, was established in Luis de Camoes’ epic poem “The Lusiads” in the late 1500s. Warning intrepid sailors against the wrath they would unleash if attempts were made to enter the Indian Ocean, this mythical figure embodies the power of nature reacting against the mortals who try to challenge and master it. Geographically, and despite the common misconception, this cape is not the southernmost tip of the African continent, since Cape Agulhas, some 90 miles to the south-east, lies further down in terms of latitude – it is also the official dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian oceans. But the historical importance of Good Hope, which had for many years been simply referred to as “The Cape” by sailors, make it the most significant of these two African landmarks. The Cape of Good Hope is the legendary home of The Flying Dutchman. Crewed by tormented and damned ghostly sailors, it is doomed forever to beat its way through the adjacent waters without ever succeeding in rounding the headland.
Leg 2 & 3
Cape Town to Kochin
Kochin to Singapore
During this leg the teams will sail through the Indian Ocean, which is the third largest of the world’s oceanic divisions, covering about 20% of the water on the Earth’s surface. It is bounded on the north by Asia (including the Indian subcontinent, after which it is named); on the west by Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and Australia; and on the south by the Southern Ocean (or, traditionally, by Antarctica). This ocean is nearly 10,000 kilometres (6,200 mi) wide at the southern tips of Africa and Australia; its area is 73,556,000 square kilometres (32.1 mi), including the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf.
The climate north of the equator is affected by a monsoon or tornado wind system. Strong north-east winds blow from October until April; from May until October south and west winds prevail. In the Arabian Sea the violent monsoon brings rain to the Indian subcontinent. In the southern hemisphere the winds generally are milder, but summer storms near Mauritius can be severe. When the monsoon winds change, cyclones sometimes strike the shores of the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal. The Indian Ocean is the warmest ocean in the world.
Leg 4
Singapore to Qingdao
The South China Sea is a marginal sea south of China. It is a part of the Pacific Ocean, encompassing an area from Singapore to the Strait of Taiwan of around 3,500,000 km². It is one of the largest sea bodies after the five oceans. The minute South China Sea Islands, collectively an archipelago, number in the hundreds. The sea and its mostly uninhabited islands are subject to several competing claims of sovereignty by neighboring nations. These competing claims are also reflected in the variety of names used for the islands and the sea.
The East China Sea is a marginal sea east of China. It is a part of the Pacific Ocean and covers an area of 1,249,000 km². In China, the sea is called the East Sea. In South Korea, the sea is sometimes called “South Sea”, but this is more often used to denote only the area near South Korea’s southern coast.
Leg 5 & 6
Qingdao to Rio
Rio to Boston
Leg 5 is the longest of the legs on the race and it also means one of the most famous landmarks in sailing becomes a reality. Many sailors refer to rounding Cape Horn, as a right of passage, but the voyage down to the Horn has its share of dangers in store. The first one is the presence of icebergs reaching fairly northerly latitudes. This means a stressful watch for the yachtsmen, who although able to detect the larger icebergs on the radar, cannot spot growlers, small blocks of drifting ice, which are sometimes less than a metre above the surface of the water, but which can weigh thirty or forty tonnes. There is a permanent risk of collision, which means a constant watch on deck trying to detect the danger. Approaching Cape Horn, needs to be done with Extreme care. The area is a 200-mile wide bottleneck between Latin America and Antarctica ad all the weather systems rolling around the Southern Ocean must pass through this gap. From sailing downwind in strong conditions to turning the corner and sailing up the east coast of Argentina and Brazil sees many changes coming quickly. Rounding the Horn marks the way out, but the journey is far form over as the boats enter the South Atlantic. Many boats have found themselves in difficulty in this ocean. The boats have been through a lot and the South Atlantic can offer its share of nasty shocks to those, who think they have got away with it. The pamperos, the gales, which blow off the Argentinean coast, can be exceptionally violent. The stretch is often a difficult one to sail, with the majority of the leg done upwind, which contributes to the fragility of the boats and the crew onboard.
Even though the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914 meant that rounding the infamous Horn was no longer necessary for ships transferring between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, the dreaded rock kept its ferocious reputation. Sailors who have conquered it are known to be a breed apart, and, as a major milestone on the great Clippers routes, Cape Horn has set the stage for the most dramatic episodes in the history of navigation. The southernmost point of an archipelago associated with South America, the Cape itself is located on the Chilean territory of Isla Hornos in the Hermite Islands group, and owes its name to the Dutch city of Hoorn, from where the first ships that caught sight of it, in 1615, had set sail. This two-boat expedition was led by Jacob Lemaire and Willem Schouten, who were investigating Francis Drake’s suggestion of a route south of Tierra del Fuego, on behalf on the Dutch East India Company. The sudden rise of continental shelf associated with the proximity of the Weddell Peninsula (Antarctica) is largely responsible for the rough conditions encountered in Cape Horn, as the Southern Ocean’s westerly winds and waves, otherwise roaming freely around Antarctica, are suddenly forced into a relatively narrow and shallow passage.
Leg 7
Boston to Galway
The climate of the Atlantic Ocean and adjacent land areas is influenced by the temperatures of the surface waters and water currents as well as the winds blowing across the waters. Because of the ocean’s great capacity for retaining heat, maritime climates are more moderate and have less tendency toward extreme seasonal variations than inland climates. Precipitation can be approximated from coastal weather data and air temperature from the water temperatures. The oceans are the major source of the atmospheric moisture that is obtained through evaporation. Climatic zones vary with latitude; the warmest climatic zones stretch across the Atlantic north of the equator. The coldest zones are in the high latitudes, with the coldest regions corresponding to the areas covered by sea ice. Ocean currents contribute to climatic control by transporting warm and cold waters to other regions. Adjacent land areas are affected by the winds that are cooled or warmed when blowing over these currents. The Gulf Stream and its northern extension towards Europe, the North Atlantic Drift, for example, warms the atmosphere of the British Isles and north-western Europe, and the cold water currents contribute to heavy fog off the coast of eastern Canada (the Grand Banks area) and the north-western coast of Africa. In general, winds tend to transport moisture and warm or cool air over land areas. Hurricanes develop in the southern part of
