Volvo Ocean Race: Rough start to leg two for Kiwi sailors

Peter Burling battled 4m swells as he helmed Team Brunel out of Lisbon on leg two of the Volvo Ocean Race. Photo: Rich Edwards/Volvo Ocean Race.

A fast and furious start to leg two of the Volvo Ocean Race has provided a rough introduction to the realities of ocean racing for many of the Kiwi first-timers in the fleet.

The relentless fire hose conditions that greeted the fleet as they set off from Lisbon yesterday have eased slightly today and now the war stories are emerging.

Stunning on-board footage aboard Team Brunel shows the boat, with America's Cup winning helmsman Peter Burling at the wheel, getting hammered by waves in the heavy 4m ocean swell.

The race's official Facebook page later featured the cheeky post "Welcome to the Volvo Ocean Race, Peter Burling - you're not in Bermuda now", referring to the mostly pristine turquoise waters of the Great Sound where Burling steered Team New Zealand to victory in June.

Aboard Dee Caffari's Turn the Tide on Plastic, young Kiwi sailor Bianca Cook had a scare when a big wave threw her off the stack and into the cockpit. Fortunately Cook was clipped in, but there was so much water that her personal floatation device inflated, trapping her in the cockpit.

With Cook tethered in place, hundreds of litres of water swamped over her before she was able to be freed by a team mate.

"I just went to windward to try and get the halyard tied off and sat in front of the winch to try and clear it, and just as I was doing that the wave came and took me out, but I was clipped on mum, don't worry," an out of breath Cook later explained.

When there's so much water over deck your lifejacket explodes 💥

When there's so much water over deck your lifejacket explodes 💥 Welcome to the Leg 2 washing machine, Turn the Tide on Plastic!

Posted by The Ocean Race on Sunday, 5 November 2017

After the frightening start, the fleet is today settling into a groove, with navigators and skippers already facing the first of many critical decisions on this race from Lisbon to Cape Town.

Today will give us the first indication as to how far west the teams want to set up for their approach to the doldrums.

The official race tracker puts Dongfeng Race Team in the lead, followed by Spanish team MAPFRE, featuring Blair Tuke, and Scallywag in third as the fleet passed Madeira.

But at this point in leg two the tracker rankings so not account for tactical positioning. Instead, the tracker rewards southerly progress towards Cape Town and therefore boats positioned further south (and east) will be ranked higher, even if the tactical situation favours the west.

Dutch team AkzoNobel have made a break from the fleet, sailing further to the west in order to set up their approach to the doldrums.