02/22/2001
Day 53, 11.00 am GMT
A few degrees further north
Club Med is off again, slowly but surely gaining speed over the last five
or six hours. The leader is steering back towards north, but the big blue
cat is still far from achieving an optimal Velocity Made Good (VMG).
In theory, the middle of the doldrums is about 4 degrees north. Club Med is currently
at 2°46’ north, but is picking up a northeasterly wind, which, although light, is enough
to power them along at 13.8 knots. Not bad when you are supposed to be parked up
in the light airs of the intertropical convergence zone. Is this the first sign of the
northeast trades, which they would not normally expect to reach until around latitude
5 degrees north?
Nearly 1,000 miles further back Innovation Explorer has taken another 20 miles out
of the leader. There is still a long way to go for Loïck Peyron and his crew, but the
southeast trades are expected to reindex settled, enabling them to make quite fast
headway. In the course of the past hour of racing, the second-placed boat averaged
16.8 knots, three knots faster than Club Med.
Back in the Pacific Warta-Polpharma is doing almost as well, averaging 16.6 knots.
The Polish crew announced at yesterday’s radio conference that they had a problem
with their headboard car, but considering the speed at which they are sailing, it is
hard to imagine it can be a major setback. We should know more after today’s radio
conference in a few minutes time.
Team Adventure is still heading southeast, steering 140. Cam and co logged the best
average speed at the last fix with 18 knots. They are continuing to reel in
Warta-Polpharma, now just 79 miles behind and closing fast.
Backmarker Team Legato is beginning to pick up some southwesterly wind,
averaging 13.7 knots and expected to indextain that speed for the next few hours.
DB
Translation by LMQV
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