Dare To Lead departed Airlie Beach six points clear at the top of the leader board, but Race 7 – the first of two stages in the fifth leg of the 2023-24 edition of the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race – would prove to be quite a challenge for the ambitious crew who have become intensely competitive ocean sailors. It became more of a ‘game’ of snakes and ladders, but not necessarily in that order!

The fleet had its first Le Mans Start of the circumnavigation, outside the Great Barrier Reef, in a steady 15 knots of NNW breeze. Being the Lead Skipper, Ryan said it was a little stressful ‘making sure everything goes well’ but it seemed to go very well: “Well done everyone and see you all in Vietnam,” he posted.

By the end of January Dare To Lead crossed 8 degrees of latitude, leaving them 36 hours to get through the top half of the Doldrums Corridor. The skipper wrote in his blog: “It has been an extremely close and exciting race to this point with places being traded all the time between the fleet, it seems the level has gotten higher between all boats and even though this is a long race it’s the constant trimming and seeing boats around you which is fantastic.

“For example, we just crossed the 8 degrees of latitude with Ha Long Bay, Viet Nam roughly 200 metres behind us, and five other boats in sight after three days of competitive sailing, which just shows how closely matched the fleet is and really drives each other to sail the boats as best as we can.”

Despite coming through the Doldrums Corridor relatively smoothly the path ahead was full of wind holes and light airs. Ryan reported: “All boats have been heading in a northerly direction, as the wind hole is blocking us going directly towards the Philippines, plus we would like to all reach the NE trade winds which are further north.”

The boat had its second equator crossing of this global circumnavigation, returning to the northern hemisphere after seeing eight crew become Shellbacks. The Pollywogs had to drink a mix of cereal, every sauce on the boat, juice and a few other things from around the galley.

Philip Carden described the experience: “I was subjected to a most horrific sacrificial ceremony to the good King Neptune. This involved pledging my allegiance to the great god and then giving some precious lemonade as a sign of my true respect. AND THEN...drinking a cup of disgusting slop.”

Ryan added: “By the reaction on the crew's faces, I believe it was worse than the one I made for the first Atlantic Equator crossing, sorry guys! Otherwise, we all look forward to the sailing ahead and are all feeling fresh to push the boat and try to get a good result this race!”

But the way ahead was frustrating with a huge bank of clouds covering the fleet producing consistent rain and wind shifts, wind holes and wind gusts. Ryan paid tribute to the crew: “We have had some seriously busy watches…everyone onboard is already exhausted due to lack of sleep from the heat, so the combination is testing us, but everyone has been fantastic.”

The team took a northern route missing the Scoring Gate which paid off, putting Dare To Lead at the front of the fleet. “Yay! We’re in a nice position…(but) the boats behind are very close and in these conditions anything can happen,” observed Ryan, and it did!

Pushing into the lead by missing the scoring gate.

Over the next 48 hours the Clipper 70 was caught in ‘every wind hole possible’ and four boats overtook them. The team continued this slow progress until they dropped off the front pack and slid down to eighth place. To add insult to injury, the galley ran out of tea!

AQP Charlie commented: “When slipping back like that, it can be easy to lose motivation and accept fate, but the crew have all been doggedly persistent in their hunt for speed, constantly checking trim, removing any water from the boat when possible, and swapping round helms quickly so nobody starts to lose concentration.”

The Ocean Sprint was undertaken mostly in Stealth Mode! But the results will not be revealed until prizegiving in Ha Long Bay. Unfortunately crew member Antoine Arveiller suffered a sheet flogging injury to his left wrist which needed medical assessment. This resulted in a short diversion to drop him off at Port Irene, St. Ana [Philippines] where an ambulance transferred him to the local hospital as a precaution.

Fellow crew member Lisa Schaefer reported: “It was clearly quite a spectacle for this small island and word had spread amongst locals. We were greeted by more than 50 onlookers on the dock wondering what all the fuss was about, despite the early arrival time [7am]…After a couple of hours of administration, form filling, phone calls and photos, Antoine was finally on his way, but not before giving one final clarion call of ‘Who are we?’ To which we responded in our customary way and gave one final blast on the vuvuzela. God only knows what the locals made of this!

“We wish him a fast and smooth recovery and gutted that his adventure has had to end prematurely. It’s been a pleasure to sail with him and he will be sorely missed. Get well soon, Antoine! Thanks to everyone who was involved in the organization of what turned out to be a very smooth evacuation.”

The last 1000nm to Ha Long Bay provided more idyllic downwind kite running before turning north onto the final stretch into Ha Long Bay. They had some pretty ideal sailing conditions, the wind was steady, with very little swell. “We’ve been eating up the miles,” reported Charlie.

“The crew have been running the boat smoothly…The galley has been slaving away from the early hours of the morning, making cakes and putting on an extra special breakfast of bacon, eggs and potatoes with the usual bread and jam.” All this in honour of Skipper Ryan’s birthday.

Ultimately Dare To Lead crossed the finish line of Race 7 at 0400 UTC on 19th February in tenth place. On arrival at the pontoon in Ha Long Bay, Viet Nam, skipper Ryan said that despite it being a challenging leg everyone is still motivated at the half-way point of this marathon round-the-world adventure.

Crew member Amanda Shehab (circumnavigating with her daughter Megan Allpress) agreed and added that every race had been different, and the last one had been tough on everyone, with variable weather and injury. But added, "We care for each other."

This was the first race of Leg 5 for Dare to Lead - Liyaba ambassador Ntokozo Msiya. She said on arrival that it was great to have crossed the equator and experienced the ceremony. She added that she'd learned a lot on the race, especially discovering how supportive the crew are. "You're never alone. If you are down everyone is there for you...it means a lot... they are nice people."

AQP Charlie observed that despite the frustrations of coming tenth there had been highlights, like 2000 miles of power reaching. "We were fighting to the very end," he added. It's been a faster race than anticipated, taking 22 days, so plenty of time to prepare for the next race which is scheduled to start on 2 march, which will be an intense 4-5 day sprint to Zhuhai in southern China’s ‘Bay area’ close to Macau and across the estuary entrance to Hong Kong.