The latest daily news from Ellen to Dr Krumnacker
Segel.de
* PRB finally benefits from the same breeze that propelled SILL in to top spot yesterday, recording 2nd best speed of morning poll and now just 10 miles (but 1'30 deg further east) behind his friend and competitor Mich. Despite an 8 hour 'horrible' gybe for safety reasons to the north to avoid being too far south with the ice, Ellen and Kingfisher hold on to 3rd place as Thiercelin comes storming in from the north at 17 knots...
* Ellen's outlook is better than of late..."I've not sailed that well during the night, but the weather situation looks so much better this morning than yesterday. I really struggled yesterday, spent at least 8 hours on the weather, went round in circles! Looks like the depression in front and to the north could deepen and I should get some southerly breeze from that. FANTASTIC!"
* Thomas Coville (Sodebo) has toughest day so far - his previously damaged steering system failed sending the boat in to a spin, forcing him to ditch the gennaker in a hurry, dislocating his thumb and burning his hand. Now he must redo the repair to his rudder system, agonisingly difficult in the freezing temperatures, but in the meantime is having it tough as the pilot struggles to steer with the damaged steering setup.
* Mike Golding hopes today to find shelter in lee of Kerguelen Islands to finally make his genoa repair...lets hope for better luck for him than in the Possession Islands. Mike has had the toughest of starts to this race, credit to him for pushing on after his dismasting on day one, just amazing determination these guys.
* Perspective of another Anglo-French speaking/sponsored skipper, Josh Hall, unlucky to have dropped off the back of a weather system and now lying in 10th place. "Its a hard race mentally " said Hall "we have been going hard for 42 days and there are still at least 50 more to go. Its now that I am really starting to miss the comforts of land and the people I love...its hard for them too with all the worry and concern as we traverse the south oceans" [Source EBP-GARTMORE]
Thanks for the thousands of entries in the Xmas competition! Answer : Ellen's favourite three Mini Discs at the moment - ERA, Santana, Enya...lots of people got Santana, that was easy from Ellen's email, but only a couple managed to get one of the others...JVC Mini Disc player from COMET on its way to the winner (notification by email). Well done!
There are 3 or 4 updates and news from the fleet during the day at http://www.kingfisherchallenges.com every day - plus most days you can listen to Ellen directly in the Audio section...
*** Schedule in next few days - no emails, just web updates on the 25th, 26th, 31st and 1st of January. Audio every day except 25th and 1st on the site ***
STATUS REPORT AT 0800 GMT
Position 54° 14.6S 123° 39.6E
heading/speed 127 12.26
Wind from 269 at 17.3 knots
Pressure of 968
Air temperature 4 C
Sea temperature 6 C
Sail configuration is Full index Code 5
Percentage performance 95.5
I grit my teeth as I open the fore-hatch, as the cold handles seem to 'bite'
my cold, hard hands. Feeling stupid, I use my feet, frustrated at myself
for making an unhealed knuckle bleed once more. For this is not the
Atlantic, here it is cold and remote - the nights moving in - with a feeling
that the icy Antartic winds slowly place their arms around you...the cold
seeping through to your bones..
The days at the moment are better - the sun rises and sets - which seems
extraordinary for the south,. I always imagines an endless grey - but it has proved to me that it has many faces, many moods and many seasons..
It is unpredictable and as I sit here there is a massive band of dark cloud
to windward. As always it approaches us slowly but surely - with the rain
clearly visible as it pelts down to the sea below..
I hope that this option in the south is not going to turn out too bad. I
hope we will not have another scenario as Yves.. We just have to stay far
enough North to touch that line of breeze to lead us to the next depression
Here's hoping.
ex
DIARY NOTE FROM THE SAME DAY IN THE LAST RACE 1996: Having beaten the 24 hour speed record, Christophe Auguin has some visitors. "This morning, during a gybe, a whale came and visited me making 3 or 4 passes just metres from the boat, then it took off in to the distance". The race leader is expecting to have a tough time negotiating the next depressions that form between Tasmania and New Zealand.
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