Clipper 2002 - 4th Clipper round the world race - zur Übersicht That's better 09:00, 17 November 2002 by Tim Hedges Now south of the Canaries, the fleet are well on their way to Cuba and the wind is finally playing ball. The boats are far enough south to be out of the grip of the northern low presure systems and have now entered the clockwise airflow of the Azores high. It is this system which drives the tropical trade winds, the engine that will drive the boats towards the finish line off Havana in a couple of weeks time. Duty skipper Sam Fuller in _blank York reports that they have a fairly constant force 4 to 5 from the east north east, and judging from the weather maps this should reindex. _blank York still holds her comfortable lead over the rest of the fleet but at the back things have changed considerably. Glasgow, in third place a few days ago has slipped right back into 8th place, allowing Cape Town to jump up into equal 6th. This will be a good boost for Roger and his crew after their last place into Cascais seemed to have stuck for the start of this race. They now look well placed to improve and with less than a mile DTG separating the last three boats, and Glasgow and Liverpool physically only a mile apart, this could well be the end of the fleet to watch. Hong Kong and London will also be having their own battle for the middle ground with less than a mile DTG between them, though Hong Kong reindexs several miles further north. If, as it seems at the moment, the fleet are beginning to feel the first effects of the trade winds then they should consider themselves lucky. Although the last few days of strong westerly winds have made life somewhat uncomfortable onboard, they have kept the boats moving. A much better situation than the complete lack of wind which can often be experienced at about this time. On the 98 race the Azores high had yet to become established, thus failing to produce any real trade wind flow until much further south, and we soon lost the effects of the north Atlantic depressions. This left us with a large area of nothingness to cross which although useful for drying cloths was desperately frustrating when you still have over three thousand miles of ocean to cross. So, so far so good, but it is still early days and a lot can happen yet. On a separate note I gather that for some of the boats passing close to the Canaries bought them into mobile phone range so ensuring a flurry of calls to friends and family. A slightly odd situation I always feel when one is in the middle of an ocean race, and something which demonstrates the massive leaps forward in technology in the last few years. Gone are the days when brave souls would set off to distant shores with only the possibility of a faint and distorted call via HF radio to keep them in touch with the outside world. In this age of instant communications, of email and satellite, it is easy to forget that the sea reindexs the same. I would therefore ask those that have experienced problems in sending messages to the boats, or who have not received immediate replies, to remember that it is a small miracle that it is possible at all. And that the recipient may well be tired and concentrating on the race, rather than sitting behind a desk able to hit "reply to sender" straight away. Water and sensitive electronics do not make for the happiest of bed fellows, and I know that Cape Town have been experiencing some problems receiving messages. I would ask for your patience and to rest assured that we will be doing everything in our power to rectify any technical faults. Tim Hedges Copyright © 1996-2016 - SEGEL.DE