Joan Vila rarely raises his voice. The 56-year-old doesn’t really need to. He peers down at the tablet suspended around his waist and calls out instructions to the helmsman of Mapfre, Pablo Arrarte, who tweaks the route, and the rest of the crew know immediately what they need to do, pulling sheets, putting up sails, releasing the backstay, with hardly a word said.

The 60-foot boat – sponsored by Spanish insurance giant Mapfre – was taking part in one of the port races in The Hague, the crew’s last commitment after eight gruelling months at sea in the Volvo Ocean Race which saw them cross 45,000 nautical miles, enduring some of the world’s toughest sailing conditions… in some of the least comfortable.

Surviving on 7,000 calories a day of freeze-dried food, with only a few hours of sleep on a glorified luggage rack, with no showers and a toilet only for emergency use: this is what sets these round-the-world sailors apart as superhumans.

You would think that once would be enough, but Mr Vila has already done the race five times, once in a winning boat.

Xabi Fernandez

His well-lined face is testimony to the relentless outdoor exposure of the past months, but he grins lopsidedly – a tooth is missing – and admits that at the end of every race, he promises himself it would be the last. But he grins again to say: “But ask me again in a year or so.”

American/Australian Sophie Ciszek was celebrating her 33rd birthday that day, and confessed that her mother still worried about her – particularly in the longer legs of the 11-leg race – and wished she had chosen another career. The race is one of the most intense experiences and it is a bit of an anti-climax to realise that once the port commitments in The Hague were over, she would be to all intents and purposes out of a job.

Joan Vila

Although they are all professional sailors, one race does not always match seamlessly with the next, and in spite of shorter races and deliveries to fill the time, she frets about being unemployed, one of the reasons she qualified as a physiotherapist.

However, her range of skills is much, much wider. Having spent most of the coastal race climbing up the mast, and crossing from grinder to grinder, pigtails flicking, as soon as the race was over, she dismantled one of the windlasses to repair it.

Another veteran, Briton Ron Greenhalgh, has also been on a winning boat in the Volvo Ocean Race in the past, but as the tactician, he shoulders much of the responsibility for the route chosen on the final day of the race, which saw rival Dongfeng take a far riskier short cut through shallow waters to steal the trophy from under Mapfre’s nose.

“We rely on the software. Dongfeng took a risk, but I still think we did the right thing,” he said.

There is no place for regret on these ocean races. Ask skipper Xabi Fernandez: he may have been bitterly disappointed at having been so close to the coveted trophy, but he looked back on his participation in the race as having been a true privilege.

“This is an amazing opportunity. It was super good fun and a huge experience which only people who have already done this could understand: sailing around the world with your friends, against friends, and making new friends.

“On this boat we have people who have sailed together around the world two or three times already. The relationship is very hard to find somewhere else. The good moments are so many more than the bad ones. That is why it is always worth coming back,” he said in his soft Spanish accent.

Sailing in such extreme conditions is not without its risks. John Fisher of Scallywag was swept overboard and never recovered, which hit all the teams very profoundly. However, it also brings out the best and worst in people. How do a dozen people live in such close proximity, with no privacy, cold and wet and tired for much of the time, and yet still work as a team?

Mr Fernandez, who was skippering Mapfre for the first time, said that the word – teamwork – was the key.

“And trust as well: you have to have confidence in your people. When it is 40 knots and rough, and you have to go down below, you have to trust the four people who stay on deck, to do a good job and to keep safe,” he said.

“Hire the best people possible but then let them do what they do better than you. If you have a specialist in navigation or in sails, then let them get on with it; just because you are the skipper you don’t have to be involved in everything.

“People keep motivated when they feel well used,” he advised.

Photos: Mapfre/Volvo Ocean Race