06.01.2001
The latest daily news from Ellen to Dr Krumnacker Segel.de
* Some numbers : the top 8 boats have less than 10000 miles to go
* The leaders have less than 9000 miles to go. Its less than 2000 miles to
go to Cape Horn.
* The rest of the race is still the equivalent of more than 3 OSTAR
transatlantic races, or 200 Round the Island (of Wight) races, or 16
Fastnets in a row. Its a very long way, with a lot of big challenges, even
after Cape Horn which will however give a welcome change of environment for
everyone...
* Mich Desj has stormed ahead of Kingfisher after catching the weather
system in front, extending his lead to almost 400 miles - with a weather
patten as you can see in Virtual Spectator that looks like it could take him
all the way to the Atlantic... Active Wear has closed to less than 150 miles
of Kingfisher.
* SILL is holding on to third just a few miles back from Ellen, after
revealing the extent of the problems he has had in fact since Dec 16th -
broken indexsail track allowing him no more than a double reefed indexsail
(significant reduction in sail area), and either gennaker or staysail - due
to the genoa coming out of its foil near the head of the sail and not being
usable. He has kept it quiet for tactical reasons until now, and has sailed
amazingly well for 3 weeks considering this. He must try to find some
flatter water to repair the indexsail track (this the metal rail that the
indexsail goes up and down on) - by taking some from lower on the mast,
drilling, tapping and replacing the damaged part at the top of the mast.
* Simone Bianchetti (Aquarelle) has reported a hole in one his mast
spreaders (critical for keeping the mast up) - he's sailing under reduced
sail until he can figure out how to repair.
Check out the physical realities at
http://www.kingfisher-challenges.com/position/index.shtml
NEW sleep report - is Ellen recovering?
http://www.kingfisher-challenges.com/uk/sleep/index.asp
ELLEN DIRECT THIS MORNING AT 0730 GMT
Audio from this morning in Realplayer
http://64.23.31.209/clients/kf/latesta_uk.ram
Position 53° 42.7S 118° 34.8W
heading/speed 59 10.28
Wind from 269 at 12.9 knots
Pressure of 995
Sea temperature 4.4
Sail configuration is Full index Spinnaker
Percentage performance 96.7
Well all I can manage to say right now is wow...
As I type there is less movement in Kingfisher than we have had for a long
time. She slides gracefully along under spinnaker in a light downwind
breeze. The moon is out, and is getting close to being full, and there are
stars filling the sky - a site that I have rarely seen down here. A
cloudless sky, and a very thin mist filling the air - making the world
tonight outside my little hatchway appear almost magical..
Spirits are high on board after a constructive day, and again a reasonable
amount of good recuperative sleep. I gybed around midday to head back up
the North as the wind changed, and since then the wind has slowly shifted in
our favour. I was right that the effects of the coming low were happening
faster than predicted - the result an earlier veering wind - confirmed a
few hours ago by the levelling barometer.
Today I did some small adjustments to the second reef lashing, I replaced
the block at the and of the bowsprit which took much longer than I thought!
Hanging off the end I spent well over an hour unlashing - taping and
protecting the new lashing. The result though is a new block, which stands
little risk of cutting into the guy when supporting the kite, which now
flies!
I dried out several of her compartments, organised a fair few of her boxes,
and fixed a troublesome camera - poor thing struggles in this damp
environment.
I repaired the grab-handle on the foredeck, and did a few fuel checks - we
are looking in good shape consumation-wise. Great.
The most moving thing today was the phone in to the British Nautical
Awards. I did a live phone-in during the Awards dinner, so deservedly won by
the British Olympic Team.
I became quite emotional about the whole event - even from so far away,
and find it amazing to be able to share moments like that from so far
away. Thanks BT, Kingfisher and all the team and friends of the
project for making all this possible. I just hope that people's coffee's
didn't get too cold!
Thanks so much everyone. It seems like a million years ago, and not 6
that I was sotanding on the stage with the Young Sailor of the Year Award.
Incredible - still I feel like the last 6 years has been 20.
Well better go - it's time to do the audio chat. Thanks for being there
everyone - not far to go now. Looking forward to heading North...
Love
ellen
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