02/15/2001
Day 45, 11.00 pm GMT :
Club Med has completed 5/6 of The Race
Club Med has only 5,425.3 miles left to run . . .
That means she has only 1/6 of the total distance to go or, put another way, she's
completed 5/6 of the course. Although the speeds have dropped across the board
since the boats left the southern latitudes, Club Med and Innovation Explorer are still
holding on to average speeds greater than 10 knots while in gentle breezes of 10 to
15 knots either from ahead or from the beam. The leaders have little to worry about
and they could yet surpriese us with regard to their ETA (estimated time of arrival)
in Marseille. For those bringing up the rear, the situation gets inexorably worse as,
one after the other, the boats dive into the high-pressure trap in the Tasman Sea.
Since this morning, Club Med has been in an easterly wind of 15 knots which has
allowed her to reach close to a 12-knot average speed over the last 24 hours. She's
covered 281 miles since the same time yesterday. That's not in itself remarkable,
but it's worth noting that at no time since beginning her reascent of the Atlantic has
she stood still. This means that the counters are clicking and the distance to the
finish is diminishing. In 48 hours, Club Med will be less than 5,000 miles from the
line. And that will be only the 48th day of racing.
Right now, Grant Dalton's and Franck Proffit's maxi-catamaran is sailing off
Uruguay and the southern tip of Brazil. She's heading toward another anticyclonic
front which Mike Quilter should be able to skirt to its left courtesy of a northerly
wind.
Starboard tack, port tack . . . The sailing plan followed by Mike Quilter
(navigator) and Roger "Clouds" Badham (router) has been exemplary in every detail:
Club Med has never been without wind, she weaves her way between the trouble
spots, and she always finds the little zephyrs which let her notch up a minimum of
250 miles on any day . . . Hats off, gentlemen!
Innovation Explorer has traveled 667 miles since Cape Horn. At the moment she's
getting northwest winds at 15 knots which will progressively die to 10 and then 5
knots. Her averages will naturally fall, but Loïck Peyron's maxi-catamaran should be
in steady southwesterly winds of 15 knots in the coming 24 hours. We'll see . . .
She is presently northeast of the Falkland Islands.
Don't give up, Team Adventure . . . Jean-Yves Bernot would like to forget this
stage! The navigator must be pulling his hair out as he struggles with the anticyclone
which has him clutched jealously in its calms. For three days now the
maxi-catamaran has been crawling at 5 to 7 knots average. The last posting had her
covering 130 miles in 24 hours with 65 miles still to go to Cape Farewell (the
northern tip of New Zealand's South Island) after which it's 124 miles to Wellington.
At this rate, Cam Lewis should arrive at the entrance to Cook Strait at 11.00 am
GMT tomorrow and reach the capital of New Zealand about 24 hours later.
Warta-Polpharma has managed still to hold on to an average of 12.3 knots over 24
hours but her speed is gradually dropping. The anticyclone awaits her in the Tasman
Sea even though she's gone farther south than Team Adventure. The elastic is
working well because the Polish boat is now 400 miles from Cam Lewis's
maxi-catamaran. When they go through Cook Strait, the Poles no doubt hope to
build a good lead as a result of the stop planned by the men in the damaged boat.
Team Legato is the big winner today with 18.7 knots average speed over 24 hours
and 449.2 miles on the odometer . . .Tony Bullimore must be grinning from ear to
ear. He's gaining on the boats ahead and today he was only 700 miles behind
Warta-Polpharma and 1,100 miles behind Team Adventure. He may still have gas
for now, but he too will sooner or later run afoul of this accursed high pressure zone.
PGa
Translation by JMc
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