03/28/2001
Day 87, 10.00 pm GMT:
The courses are curving toward the northeast . . .
Quietly, the tracks of the last two maxis on the race course are curving
slightly toward the east that's synonymous both with coming home and
with the fiesta in Marseille . . . they're beginning to smell the pastis and
the sardinade!
Warta-Polpharma was the first to point her bows due north (at 12.00 pm GMT today)
and Team Legato, far to her east in longitude, wasn't long in following suit.
Both boats had the identical average speed of 11.5 knots this past 24 hours, and at
9.30 am GMT today, Warta-Polpharma passed under the mark of 3,000 miles from
the finish.
They have now embarked on the long final sprint, with Roman Paszke and his men
needing to make up the easting they lost when they went to Fortaleza in Brazil to
repair their port hull. Ironically, at about 4.00 GMT yesterday, Team Legato passed
through the area where the Polish boat had her accident.
At the moment, the problem's not so much one of getting east as it is of finding
following winds that will let them do that. In that respect,
Warta-Polpharma, positioned farther north, is likely to get those winds first.
The Poles do, however, need to prove themselves considerably faster to make up
for the greater distance thay have to cover on the direct route.
Their problem is that they've been given orders not to push the just-repaired port hull
too hard because it needs more time to fully cure . . . It won't achieve full strength
until tomorrow.
So, Roman has promised not to change course significantly before he reaches
Latitude 15 North. This gives a small respite to Tony Bullimore who's counting on
holding onto his luck until the end. He's very pleased to have an opportunity at last
to fight for a higher place, even though it won't count in the official rankings. For
now, we're in suspense . . .
CF
Translation by JMc
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