October 29
FIRST CALM PERIOD SINCE THE BISCAY STORM
VELUX 5 OCEANS race positions 15:08 GMT 29/10/06
Positions Yacht Skipper Latitude/Longitude Course Speed DTL DTF
1 Cheminees Poujoulat Bernard Stamm 24° 24.64 N/024° 15.88 W 260° 3.2kts 9748(DTF)
2 Spirit of Yukoh Kojiro Shiraishi 28° 50.72 N/023° 30.56 W 160° 3kts 269(DTL)
3 Ecover Mike Golding 33° 18.00 N/015° 45.48 W N/A N/A 619(DTL)
4 Hugo Boss Alex Thomson 33° 35.36 N/014° 14.92 W 232° 8.3kts 662(DTL)
5 SAGA Insurance Sir Robin Knox-Johnston 41° 47.64 N/011° 19.20 W 195° 7.4kts 1172(DTL)
6 Pakea Unai Basurko 43° 05.76 N/009° 20.24 W 184° 6.4kts 1320(DTL)
7 A Southern Man-AGD Graham Dalton 43° 27.60 N/009° 02.68 W 168° 7kts 1334(DTL)
At the front of the VELUX 5 OCEANS fleet, Bernard Stamm on Cheminées Poujoulat has mirrored the overnight move of Kojiro Shiraishi, turning away from the coast of Africa, heading south-west over the North Atlantic's bottomless Cape Verde Abyssal Plain. Both Stamm and Koji (Spirit of Yukoh) have hit a band of light winds, their boatspeed dropping dramatically to just three knots with 269 miles separating the leading pair.
Just north-east of Porto Santo - the most northerly island in the Madeira group - Mike Golding has also slowed to a virtual standstill: "I'm almost parked at the moment" he reported from Ecover earlier today, "I'm just trying to keep the boat moving". Alex Thomson is just 44 miles behind Mike Golding and has kept pace with Ecover throughout the day. Since rounding Cape Finisterre, Thomson and Hugo Boss have reindexed further inshore than Golding. A situation forced upon the young British skipper off the coast of Spain: "Last night [Saturday] was not so fast, and being a little too far east hurt me this morning when the positions reports come through. That's the way it goes. My easterly position was forced on me two days ago and although I have tried to get more west, it has been impossible without gybing and that would have been suicide."
In fifth place, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston continues to clear the coast of Portugal, heading south-west 110 miles offshore, trailing Hugo Boss by 510 miles, but indextaining a distance of 148 miles between his Open 60, SAGA Insurance, and sixth placed Pakea. Unai Basurko has been bringing Pakea close in shore, cutting close to the north-west corner of Spain and will round Cape Finisterre at around midnight tonight. Due west of La Coruna, Graham Dalton on his Open 50, A Southern Man - AGD, has shaved Basurko's lead today from 29 miles to 14 miles: a possible consequence of the Spaniard's inshore route, or perhaps the autopilot problems Basurko reported this morning.
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