Sunday, 23rd April 2006
Arctic Exploration
“Heavy blizzard conditions, zero visibility, snow on deck, air temperature below freezing without wind chill factor, 40 knots apparent wind speed, deep reefs & storm sails, and 99% humidity below decks. All to be expected when undertaking Arctic explorations” commented Ewan Hind, Victoria Skipper this morning, as they continue to lead the fleet and gain some well earned miles over Liverpool 08 and Durban, given the current conditions to the north of the low pressure system.
The high pressure ridge that was sitting directly in the path of the fleet has contracted and a new high has developed over the eastern Aleutian Islands to the north. The wind coming off this system is now fuelling the already established easterly winds rotating around the low, set to reindex in place for a few days, which will continue to provide moderate to strong easterly winds to the north and westerly winds to the south, as the weather picture depicts.
Disappointing distance runs in the last 24 hours have been seen by New York, who report little wind and big seas in the centre of the low; Singapore, who had to “hove to” for a couple of hours to repair a broken steering cable; as well as westernaustralia.com, who are also seeing the same heavy conditions as Victoria which has slowed their progress. Jersey however are definitely this morning’s winners with a 12 hour run of 118, closing rapidly on Glasgow only 24 miles ahead, who may well be worried that their lead is not enough to retain their 9th position, only time will tell.
Cardiff, Glasgow and Qingdao reindex well to the south of the fleet and are enjoying good winds and sunshine, allowing some well needed drying out of clothes to occur. Given their current positions, the front runners will all need to tack shortly to ensure that they leave the waypoint set 200 miles south of the Aleutian Islands to port, which should give the rest of the fleet an opportunity to reduce the distance to leader, so watch out for more position changes over the next few days.
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