02/26/2001
Marseilles for some, the Horn for others
Day 57, 3.00 pm GMT update
While Club Med steadily picks up speed in the low pressure system that
may carry her all the way to Marseilles, Cam Lewis, after two stops and
short four crew members, must now face tough weather conditions as
he approaches Cape Horn.
The two boats were close rivals in the early days of The Race, playing a
game of cat and mouse on the way south down the Atlantic, but today
they are in a very different situation.
As the crowds cheer the first boat across the finishing line, Team Adventure will be
greeted only by the crashing of gigantic waves as she rounds the notorious cape at
the tip of Tierra del Fuego.
Aboard Club Med the great fear now is gear failure. After thousands of miles of
apparently effortless progress – life aboard is probably not nearly as smooth as it
may seem – the boat’s standing rigging and deck fittings were all thoroughly
checked again recently and some less reliable equipment was reinforced. One
example of this is the pad-eyes, which have proved unreliable throughout the race.
The aim now is to hold on to their lead over Innovation Explorer, or even extend it.
The more distance Grant Dalton can put between Club Med and her pursuer, the
more time he would have to repair any damage that might befall his boat between
now and Marseilles.
As some have said, 600 miles or even 1,000 miles, is not as far as it sounds for
these boats in the right weather conditions. For weeks now Club Med has been
constantly aware that she is being shadowed – an all too familiar shadow, as well,
since it is her near-identical sister-ship, Innovation Explorer.
Loïck Peyron and his crew have never kept up the pressure every step of the way,
and although the gap separating the two front-runners has proved ‘highly elastic’,
the crew of the French giant catamaran have given their all.
So you can understand the feeling of satisfaction described by Elena Caputo in an
e-mail today: "Admitting it is impossible to catch up unless there is a major
breakdown, it is a fulfilling result for Innovation Explorer to come in right behind
Dalton without a big gap between the two boats."
Meanwhile the boats nearing Cape Horn are facing huge seas. Everything is soaked
aboard Warta-Polpharma and the same is almost certainly true aboard Team
Adventure.
The boats are being blown about like pieces of straw in these huge seas, and when
your boat is 110 ft long with a 150-foot mast, it must be very difficult to slow her
down.
At tea-time Tony Bullimore was carrying calmly on his way - perhaps a little too
calmly. More tea, Tony?
VT
Translation by LMQV
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