21.11.2008
A very "quickly devoured" Doldrums!
The speeds plotted in the first of today's rankings confirmed what was
already being indicated yesterday evening. The leading group is definitively
free of the clutches of the Doldrums and is now making headway upwind in the
SE'ly tradewind in a more bunched fashion (just 75 miles separate the top
10). However more surprising still, early this afternoon, was the
recognition that Temenos II and her followers were already under the
influence of this zone. Had the boat suffered the effects of the
inter-tropical convergence zone overnight, and then shaken it off prior the
first ranking of the day? This hypothesis was soon knocked on the head given
the distance covered by the monohull over the past 24 hours.
Contacted by his team at 1600 hours, Dominique confirmed the scenario
already alluded to during yesterday's link-up, namely a surprisingly
conciliatory Doldrums.
"Things are going very well. The Doldrums has been rapidly devoured. We got
through it without encountering any opposition. It was limited to a very
slight reduction in pace for an hour, that's all! According to the latest
satellite charts the zone was pretty clear effectively and this is the
reason that I didn't see any big clouds appearing in the sky, as is normally
the case. I was expecting a relatively easy passage but perhaps not quite to
this extent."
Following on from this, the skipper, who admitted at the radio session three
days ago that he no longer counted the number of passages he's made through
the Doldrums, (19 if we have to count them for him), had this to say: "it's
certainly the very first time it's gone like this; I'm still surprised about
it!"(laughs)
Now upwind, still in a moderate but already well-established SE'ly
tradewind, Temenos II is definitively distancing itself from the zone, at
least until the fleet climb back up the Atlantic in January. It remains to
be seen if 'Mr Doldrums' will be in the same kind of mood at that point.
"We're sailing close hauled, full and by, on port tack bound for the coast
of Brazil. We have around ten knots of breeze but there's already a fine
little chop and the boat is beginning to slam. From tomorrow onwards the
seas should be bigger with more wind, but it's not really that nasty, just
uncomfortable."
In 11th position, now 171 miles behind the leader Gitana Eighty, compared
with 308 miles just four days ago, Temenos II is continuing to lead the way
for the chasing pack, her skipper happy to have made up a bit of ground on
the leading group.
Upwind for at least two or three days yet, speed is taking precedence over
strategy. The skippers will have to let the aptitude of their steeds upwind
do the talking now. And though we are unlikely to see any big upsets over
the coming days, with such bunching at the heart of the fleet the ranking is
far from being set in stone.
Translated by Kate Jennings - Expression
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