Intro:

Sailors contesting the 2014-2015 Volvo Ocean Race 'batten down the hatches' as tropical storm bears down

Script:

SOUNDBITE: (English) Bouwe Bekking,Team Brunel:

"Well, you can see the storm is going through its track that we are on the same line as there. It looks like it is intensifying a little bit. The more red we see the more breeze there is on the map. It is not the breeze that is the problem, but the biggest issue is the sea state because even with 30 knots of breeze you will probably get seven metre big waves. If we are going downwind in 30 knots of breeze we are having bowsprits of 25 knots and we might actually have seas that are coming from the front so you can imagine - if you have a wave higher than four or five metres and which you are sailing straight and directly into something will bust. So, it is that balance of sailing fast and keeping the boat in one piece."

SOUNDBITE: (English) Louis Balcaen, Team Brunel:

"It's not so nice, it's terrible...especially tropical storms, they are very unstable."

SOUNDBITE: (English) Gerd-Jan Poortman, Team Brunel:

"This storm is second to none. I mean i have never seen something more impressive than this. It is like 'weeeeeee' (makes fast circles with finger) and we are going to go 'phweeeeww'.."

SOUNDBITE: (english) Libby Greenhalgh, Team SCA:

"Saturday is cyclone day. Though technically it wont be a cyclone when we get to it but never let that get in the way of a good story - so we are going to call it a cyclone. We are going to head north and go straight into the eye of the storm, so to speak."