Ellen Mac Arthur - und ihr B&Q Maxi-Trimaran www.teamellen.com - zur Übersicht 06.02.2005 Trimaran title sponsor B&Q is the biggest DIY retailer in Europe and third biggest in the world. http://www.diy.com 71ST DAY: SURVIVING THE STORM AND HUNTING THE WINDSHIFT IN THE EAST FOR THE FINAL TACK TO THE FINISH KEY DATA 70TH DAY 0710 GMT: Distance ahead: 828 miles Time ahead: 1 day 23 hours [representing 65.28% of time reindexing] calculated using the time it took for Joyon to get to the same Distance to Finish as Ellen's current position OMEGA: Official timekeeper for Ellen MacArthur Lat/Long: 45 23 N / 013 03 W (approx 250 miles WNW Cape Finisterre) Average Boat speed: 11.98 knots (heading E by N) True Wind speed: 27.3 knots (direction N) Sea temperature: 12.7 degrees C Distance sailed so far: 26,883 miles at an average speed of 16.0 knots (data communicated by Thrane MiniC via BT Business Broadband) Distance to finish: 371 miles ETA: [Estimated Time of Arrival is based on the latest weather information available to the team today and ignoring technical breakdown slowing Ellen down. As the weather evolves the ETA will be updated. This refers to crossing the finish line, arrival in Falmouth would be 7 to 14 hours later] Earliest: Monday 1200-1800GMT Average: Monday 1800GMT to Tuesday 0200 GMT Latest: During Tuesday Image © Voyager 2020 - http://www.voyager2020.com Foto: J.Vapillon/DPPI Offshore Chall. Update based on data recorded 0710 GMT...check http://www.teamellen.com for the latest data updated hourly The teamellen.com website has been rebuilt since the technical problems experienced two days ago. To make sure you have the latest version of the site, please ensure you have emptied your cache. IN BRIEF: * LESS THAN 400 MILES TO GO FOR B&Q SKIPPER, ELLEN MACARTHUR as she heads eastwards towards the Bay of Biscay. * GALE FORCE CONDITIONS SLOWLY ABATING as B&Q, approx 250 miles WNW of Cape Finisterre. * SHIPS, EXPLODING HARD DRIVES AND VENDEE GLOBE BOATS add more action to the unfolding drama over the last 12 hours. To listen to Ellen's audio, courtesy of Geolink/Iridium, click here http://www.ocftp2.com/audio/ellen/em060205a_uk_e.mp3 IN DETAIL: There is less than 400 miles to go for B&Q skipper, Ellen MacArthur as she heads eastwards towards the Bay of Biscay, looking for potentially the one final wind shift that will see her home to the finish. Her lead has been falling quickly from 2 days, 6 hours yesterday morning to 1 day, 23 hours as her course takes her away from the direct route to the finish combined with the fact that Francis Joyon, on his 90ft multihull IDEC, was super fast towards the finish, clocking up average 400 mile days over the last four days direct to the finish. But for MacArthur, barring any major incidents or technical failure, her goal of setting a new solo, non-stop round the world speed record looks to be within her grasp with 371 miles left to go on the clock which stops ticking at 0704GMT on Wednesday, 9th February. Latest estimated time of crossing the line is still looking possible for Monday. Gale force conditions are slowly abating as B&Q, approximately 250 miles WNW of Cape Finisterre, pushes eastwards towards the Bay of Biscay - and hopefully more favourable south easterly winds. Overnight wind speeds were averaging 32, 34, 35 knots and gusting up in the high 40's blasting MacArthur with a full Force 8 gale as she fully reefed the indexsail [reducing it to its smallest size] and switched to the storm jib [the smallest headsail she has onboard, just 15m2]: "Strongest breeze has been lower than I thought, a short period of gusts up to 40, but nothing that we couldn't have coped with the staysail, so a bit annoying. It will be another six hours before the wind starts dropping so sensible thing is to stay like this until it gets light. My biomonitor tells me I've slept for 54 minutes, so that is good I guess, am just making my dinner now [0100!]." One more final battering as a very tired multihull and an even more exhausted skipper ride out the storm, hoping they can hang together and not break anything that could wreak the record attempt in these final stages. Still blowing an average of 27 knots this morning but the winds should decrease to 20-25 knot range today and 15-20 knots this evening. The wind is expected to turn from the north more to the right, forcing a bad heading almost at right angles to the finish, but then into the east and south-east during the night. Commanders' Weather forecast the all important wind shift for about 0300GMT tomorrow near 45 degrees north and 7 30 degrees west. At the point, MacArthur should be able tack on to starboard, possibly for the last time, and head north again in a good 14-18 knot breeze to the finish line off Ushant. Ships, exploding hard drives and Vendée Globe boats add more action to the unfolding drama over the last 12 hours: "A few ships around, alarms going off all around me. I put the radar on and could see really clearly. On deck you can't look forward, the spray stings your eyes too much. Although I did clean the windows the other day, and I can see more from inside than on deck to the water hurling over the deck." Shipping will become a more hazardous threat as Ellen gets into the Bay of Biscay and moves north in the busy shipping channels. B&Q is also just a handful of miles away from two of the Vendée Globe (solo race around world) boats, TEMENOS (Dom Wavre, 4th) and VMI (Seb Josse, 5th). These two skippers have been fighting it out neck and neck since Cape Horn, on their way to the finish in Les Sables [www.vendeeglobe.fr for more on this race - the event that Ellen competed in onboard Kingfisher in 2000/1]. Early this morning, one of the Sony VAIO laptops that power the critical information systems onboard B&Q - including routing and navigation software - suffered a meltdown. The VAIO's have survived 70 days without a glitch, despite continual pounding onboard B&Q but last night's storm was the last straw for one of the two hard disks. At 0750 Charles Darbyshire, Technology Manager, received a call to report the failure and just seven minutes later, MacArthur had replaced the hard disk with a pre-start mirrored backup unit, re-configured the software, and was up and running again - preparation counts! FROM ELLEN THIS MORNING: "The breeze is oscilating the whole time - one minute its up at 35 knots, the next its decreasing to 16, then you get a gust of 31 then it drops down to 20 - it's really up and down. So hard to keep the boat going - my boat speed at the moment is 12.7 knot average which is terrible. We had a few really big waves in the night - I was virtually thrown out of the bunk by one that broke right over the boat filled the cockpit, it was good I had the door shut. The cuddy was full, everything was awash, all the ropes were swimming around in the cockpit - there must have been a ton of water in the cockpit, I was a bit worried about the structure. Still had a guest of 35 knots 20 minutes ago, but average speed now is 23 knots so its really hard to know what to do. If the breeze is averaging 30 knots, I put the third reef in and if its averaging 28-29 knots, I have 2 reefs in but when you are getting gusts of 36 knots that is ****loads. I'm on three and a staysail - I certainly wouldn't put the staysail up because its top is 24 knots. I spent a few hours in my bunk - it was hard, very rough and cold. But, to be honest, it wasn't as cold as the night before. The night before I really suffered on the cold front. I really worked hard last night - I was saying its rough now, its now the time to be gaining and I just thought 'keep it together and try and rest'. But hard to rest when the breeze is dying, so hard." WEATHER ANALYSIS FROM COMMANDERS' WEATHER 0600 GMT: In the rules of record attempts, skippers are allowed to use the advice of shore-based weather experts to assist them with their choices. Ellen is working with two teams, principally Commanders Weather in the USA, backed up by Meeno Schrader in Germany. From: Commanders' Weather Corp 0600UTC Sunday, February 6, 2005 Ellen now thru the worst of the winds and seas and conditions will be slowly improving during the day Sunday as she continues eastward. The wind will continue squally in nature but avg wind speeds will slowly decline. Along with the declining wind will be a slow shift in direction to NE. This will prevent any more northing and force Ellen more eastward or perhaps a little south of east. But she has done a great job getting north in the past 24 hours so she should be able to clear Cape Finisterre safely to the north. As she heads eastward toward the Bay of Biscay she will be looking for a wind shift into the E and then SE. This shift will likely occur for her during the early morning hours Monday around 3 utc. Once she gets the shift she should be able to take a 15 kt SE breeze home to the finish. Wind forecasts Wind directions are TRUE, wind speed in kts, time is UTC Sun, Feb 6 - Gradual improvement 09: 360-020/25-30 g 35 12: 010-030/28-23, g 30 near 45 20N/12W 15: 010-030/20-25 18: 020-040/20-25 21: 030-050/15-20 Lots of clouds with squally showers diminishing during the afternoon Seas gradually subsiding Mon, Feb 7- winds clock 00: 050-070/ 14-18 03: 060-100/ 10-15- wind shift - nr 45n 7 30w- tack to starboard 06: 090-110/ 8-12 12: 120-140/14-18, near 47N/ 6 W- winds lighter west 18: 140-160/14-18 Cloudy to partly cloudy http://www.commandersweather.com http://www.wetterwelt.de FRANCIS JOYON 24 HOUR RUNS Francis Joyon's 24 hour runs. These are VMG distances, ie distance sailed towards the finish, not through the water: 27.1.05 IDEC 130 miles / B&Q 388 miles 28.1.05 IDEC 232 miles / B&Q 367 miles 29.1.05 IDEC 257 miles / B&Q 258 miles 30.1.05 IDEC 300 miles / B&Q 317 miles 31.1.05 IDEC 299 miles / B&Q 374 miles 1.2.05 IDEC 278 miles / B&Q 398 miles 2.2.05 IDEC 221 miles / B&Q 412 miles 3.2.05 IDEC 212 miles / B&Q 305 miles 4.2.05 IDEC 162 miles / B&Q 154 miles 5.2.05 IDEC 284 miles / B&Q 248 miles 6.2.05 IDEC 383 miles / B&Q 327 miles 7.2.05 IDEC 400 miles 8.2.05 IDEC 439 miles 9.2.05 IDEC 345 miles [dates normalised to Ellen's] PARTNER OF THE DAY : NAUTIX Official supplier of underwater finishings to Ellen and the Offshore Challenges Sailing Team For further information, please contact Offshore Challenges: Lou Newlands or Lucy Harwood T: +44 (0)870 063 0210 E: lou@offshorechallenges.com or lucy@offshorechallenges.com Email powered by Active24 http://www.active24.com Copyright © 1996-2016 - SEGEL.DE