Memories, dreams and reality in the Doldrums – the latest from the OBR on Dongfeng, Martin Keruzoré

Sailing in the Tropics relaxes you. The languages combine into one, favouring dialogue and exchanges on the deck of the Chinese red boat.

For some days now, the wind and the waves have calmed down, opening the door to all kinds of stories, anecdotes and legends aboard the red and white Volvo Ocean 65. Ears must be ringing back home, especially around Port La Foret or Lorient in Brittany, and around the Figaro circuit and the IMOCA class.

We have some masters of these disciplines aboard; star players for whom it is impossible to keep track of the number of participations in the Figaro or the number of Transat Jacques Vabres this carbon hull is carrying along with her.

Today, our exceptional sailors are putting the world to rights. We remember the last few miles offshore off Dieppe in the Figaro, becalmed as the chasing pack come back into contention with the breeze, ultimately getting the better of the leading group.

We go on about some of the rather full-on passages in the Irish Sea and re-live the issues we had with the stickers of Concorde Insurance and Sebago thanks to our navigator Pascal. The lousy weather choices, a poorly-negotiated Doldrums and the blinding moves tight into the coast also top the list.

The hours spent on watch are transformed into an outlet for our passion for sailing and our tales and we listen and we laugh. We could spend hours here, sitting on a sail or at a winch, intoxicated by this culture. If we had to design a new boat with the role of naval architects filled by just the sailors on board Dongfeng, it would rival Picasso.

Ideas fly around, concepts come thick and fast, things develop, speculation rises, brains whirr; it’s blue-sky thinking in earnest. Placed end-on-end, each person’s experience would pave the way forward for the creation of a genuine offshore racing monster.

We could spend time dreaming about sailing it if only the wind would stop being temperamental, stop oscillating, daring to interrupt us right in the middle of a foil design or an umpteenth solo victory, and bringing us back down to earth, back down to our Doldrums and to our progress in this Volvo Ocean Race.

Aboard Dongfeng, there are competitors and there are adversaries, but in part it’s a group of mates and friends, with a shared history and, above all, a passion for sea.

Martin