* TEAM COWES GAIN ON 67 MILES ON LEADER IN LAST 24 HOURS - TRICKY DOLDRUMS CROSSING Ahead... Virbac skipper Jean-Pierre Dick said "our lead could melt like snow"... Summing up the concerns of the leaders as the chasing boats indextain higher speeds but TEAM COWES skippers not anticipating an easy crossing: "The doldrums is looming ahead of us and it is looking like the crossing is not going to be easy...even Meeno (our weather router) is sounding nervous about it."
* FORECAST...the Doldrums is a notoriously unstable area situated just north of the Equator. The north-east trades settled in the North Atlantic meet the south-east trades in the South Atlantic - the effect is a cancellation of the wind but not always. Other weather systems do influence the area adding to the complexity of sailing in this part of the ocean. TEAM COWES still furthest boat to the west is going for speed the whole time staying as close to the leaders as possible who are all east of the rhumb line...
* SIMILAR SCENARIO IN THE 60-FOOT MULTIS...as Ellen MacArthur and Alain Gautier cover 416 miles in last 24 hours compared to 310 miles of leader Groupama... Groupama's average boat speed in the last 4 hours is 12.9 knots [considered slow for these boats!] as Foncia gains the edge racing at 17.4 knots. Foncia, still in 11th place, is now south of the Cape Verde Islands having kept the group of islands to port yesterday as some boats chose to navigate through the islands. MacArthur now looking to find different tactical option ahead as way to catch up knowing that the window of opportunity begins to fade once the front runners are through the Doldrums... http://www.teamellen.com
EMAIL LOG FROM TEAM COWES 0800GMT 13.11.03 - SAM DAVIES:
hello everyone
tonight the wind has dropped and things seem a little slow compared to the tempo of the race so far. we assesed our course and changed up to the code e to get a bit more speed.
it is also quite hot here now the cooling effect of the wind is gone. i am happy about that because i like the heat. it would be nicer if we had a freezer on board and an endless supply of mint choc chip ice cream though. the other important thing i did tonight was to rumage through the big blue spinnaker and find the unfortunate flying fish who came a cropper inside it last night before it became messy.
the doldrums is looming ahead of us and it is looking like the crossing is not going to be easy. even meeno (our weather router) is sounding nervous about it. the one thing that could be good for us is that it is a potential opportunity to get back at the boats just ahead of us if they have a bad time too......
not much other news from on board team cowes tonight.
sam x
TOP 10 OPEN 60 POSITIONS AT 0900GMT 13.11.03:
Pstn/Boat Name/Long/Lat/Speed/Course/DTF/DTL
1 VIRBAC / 6 54.84' N / 26 45.76' W / 10.0 / 195 / 1398.1 / 0.0
2 SILL / 9 18.44' N / 26 11.16' W / 12.1 / 185 / / 1541.8 / 143.7
3 ECOVER / 9 54.56' N / 26 12.64' W / 11.8 / 177 / 1573.8 / 175.7
4 PRB / 11 05.36' N / 26 17.76' W / 12.5 / 177 / 1636.2 / 238.1
5 VMI/ 11 44.96' N / 26 07.08' W / 14.4 / 187 / 1676.7 / 278.6
6 TEAM COWES / 12 26.44' N / 27 45.52' W / 13.8 / 188 / 1680.6 / 282.6
7 CARREFOUR PREVENTION / 13 28.76' N / 25 16.64' W / 7.9 / 177 / 1791.3 / 393.2
8 ARCELOR-DUNKERQUE / 14 34.40' N / 21 48.52' W / 12.7 / 185 / 1941.3 / 543.2
9 GARNIER / 18 48.36' N / 25 49.52' W / 11.1 / 193 / 2078.2 / 680.1
10 LOIRE ATLANTIQUE / 19 17.60' N / 21 58.92' W / 14.5 / 190 / 2186.7 / 788.6
PERFORMANCE PARTNER OF THE DAY: OYS
Official rigging and hydraulics supplier to the Offshore Challenges Sailing Team
http://www.offshorechallenges.com/oys
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