After the start the next intermediate goal was the Ocean Sprint. Once again there were bonus points waiting for those boats, which would pass between two virtual lines the fastest. In our case it was the latitudes 23 degrees north and 26 degrees north. However, this time the race course was not passing between those lines directly but with an angle, even having additional course marks placed in the zone. This opened the field for vastly different strategies. While some tried to follow the race’s rhumb line through the sprint, two boats decided to head east before entering the sprint. This would allow them to follow a more northerly course for crossing the sprint distance. That approached paid off and those two teams secured the first two places for the sprint, while it threw them back a bit in terms of the overall race. We ended up on place four with about an hour gap to the team in third place. So again no points for us.

After the end of the sprint we had to cross the chain of Japanese islands between two marks. Thus we entered the East Chinese Sea with light to medium winds. Once through that gate the next question needed to be answered. Should we had straight for the finish line off the coast of Qingdao as there were no further course marks in between. Or should we take a detour further north to gain potentially some points from the scoring gate that was place north of the rhumb line. We decided for the latter option, as the forecast showed some stronger winds north of the gate which would make up for the additional distance sailed.

When we tried to hoist our light-wind spinnaker in the low wind zone in front of the scoring gate a line got wrapped around the sail and we had to drop it again. It took us a while before we could then hoist our freshly repaired medium wind spinnaker. Due to this unwanted sail change and the resulting reduction in boat speed the team of Yacht Club Punta del Este was able to pass us in sight with their light-wind spinnaker flying. This was very disappointing, especially knowing that the error leading to this situation was avoidable. But that is part of the game and sometimes it is only minutes deciding even though the race takes several days.

Following that we decided on slightly different courses as the weather forecast was apparently interpreted differently between the two boats. That is the only explanation as all ten boats receive the same weather information once a day. Any additional support or information is not permitted. It was unclear for a long time which route choice would be better. Initially the speeds between us were very similar. Once they got out of radio distance, we had to rely on the position updates sent out by race management every six hours. Unfortunately, there was a problem with the transmission from Punta’s tracker so that their position in the updates was often multiple hours older than that of the other boats. This makes the comparison more cumbersome and increases the delay. When our navigation computer ceased working two days prior to race finish we received even less information. So we basically only knew about boats in AIS range, which is limited depending on weather conditions to roughly 20 nautical miles.

This made the last few hours on our way to the finish line nerve wracking. Not only had the temperatures dropped significantly so that everyone started to dig our their mid-layers. But also the wind had started to ease and back, making it unclear if we would be able to reach the finish without having to put in another tack. The only thing speaking for us at that time was that we were further to windward than most of the boats. Only team Gosh had snug past us even further to windward. And as we crossed the finish line roughly 30 nautical miles off the Chinese coast we were greeted by Gosh. After a short exchange on the radio it was clear that we had crossed in the finish line in second place. This means we got our first podium finish.

We then waited in the finish are for the other boats, as we were not expected to arrive in Qingdao before the next day. The waiting time did not go unused and we started with cleaning and checking the boat so that we could get started with the other tasks once we got ashore. Around midnight that day we then started to make our way towards the marina in a convoy with the teams of Gosh and Scotland. The first boat as expected to enter the marina at 9am with each boat getting their own arrival ceremony. On the way team Gosh got stuck in a fishing net, which delayed their arrival to the marina. Even though they got free again after only a short time, we reached the marina first and could berth punctually at 9am.

After a first control by the border control we were directly guided to the welcome ceremony. In addition to the welcome speech of invited guests we got a red scarf, matching to the current lunar year a horse and the compulsory wine shower for the podium finish. All of that was accompanied by drummers and dragon dance groups. Overall a very nice welcome to China. Following the ceremony we had to pass the immigration control, which ended up taking over an hour. Only after everyone of us had passed the partially very different formalities were we allowed to head for the reception with snacks and cold drinks. There we were joined shortly after by team Gosh, allowing us to celebrate our achievements together.

Meanwhile the stopover in Qingdao is already coming to an end. Our boat is well prepared an in three days we will depart towards Tongyeong. We are all looking forward to the stopover in Korea since race start, where the Korean delegation was so enthusiastic. And thus we don’t want to disappoint them. The pressure to get a good result in the next race is on. With only 450 nautical miles the next race is the shortest of the entire circumnavigation. Therefore, there is no time to recover from mistakes and we will to our best to prevent them in the first place.