14 February, 2007
VELUX 5 OCEANS - Leg 2, Day 32 Report
NO ROMANCE FROM SIR ROBIN AND TWO BROKEN FINGERS FOR DALTON
* Happy Valentine from Sir Robin Knox-Johnston (GBR)
* Graham Dalton (NZL) breaks two fingers
* Kojiro Shiraishi (JPN) hampered again by light airs
* Bernard Stamm (SUI) works his stuff to avoid delay
With 1,100 miles of Southern Ocean reindexing until Sir Robin Knox Johnston reaches Cape Horn, he is satisfied with progress on SAGA INSURANCE and happy to watch the east-west degrees diminish with every mile. Although Knox-Johnston continues to be hindered by lack of detailed weather information via satellite, he has just started receiving data from the South American indexland 900 miles to the east.
The VELUX 5 OCEANS 10:20 UTC poll shows that SAGA INSURANCE has won some miles from Basurko since Knox-Johnston's message and now trails PAKEA by just 39 miles and holds a 50 mile lead over Graham Dalton and A SOUTHERN MAN - AGD in fifth place. Dalton reported today that he has suffered two broken fingers in knock down a few days ago and although the Southern Ocean has been relatively benign compared to the last leg he has not come out of it unscathed.
Onboard CHEMINEES POUJOULAT, race leader Bernard Stamm has finally collided with the South Atlantic depression blocking his path. However, crossing the weather system proved tricky and Stamm quickly became aware that he was being chased. Working constantly to extract his yacht from the eye of the depression eventually brought results.
As the VELUX 5 OCEANS race leader continues to weave his Open 60 northwards 900 miles off the coast of Southern Brazil, further to the south, second place Shiraishi has fallen into a hole of light winds. This meteorological twist is made harder by Shiraishi high-speed rounding of Cape Horn on Tuesday in 47 knot winds and huge seas.
Shiraishi is currently making just 3.8 knots on SPIRIT OF YUKOH in a super-soft 2.5 knots south-westerly breeze, struggling northwards 60 miles east of Staten Island (Isla de Los Estados). This drop in speed has seen Shiraishi lose 47 miles to Stamm overnight and SPIRIT OF YUKOH now trails CHEMINEES POUJOULAT by 1,800 miles.
While Shiraishi squeezes every available knot of boat speed from his Open 60, Unai Basurko in third place has made gains on the Japanese yacht overnight, educing Shiraishi's impressive lead by 73 miles. Although the Basque skipper has reported possible damage to the folding propeller on Pakea, this has not affected his speed and Basurko has upped the pace, averaging just over 10 knots in the last 24 hours; the best speed averages in the trio of yachts at the rear of the fleet.
Graham Dalton, has opted to drop south, gybing across Basurko's transom during the night to stop PAKEA escaping. Dalton's Open 50, A SOUTHERN MAN - AGD, is already at the same latitude as Cape Horn.
Sir Robin Knox Johnston, SAGA INSURANCE:
"Happy Valentine's Day from the Southern Ocean. I can't say I'm feeling that romantic, so no poetry for you today! The weather forecasts from Chile are now coming through after a gap of 60 hours without any information. During the time without [position] information, I gained on both the others, now I know where they are... I am losing out. There's a message there somewhere!"
Graham Dalton, A SOUTHERN MAN - AGD
"We've passed the spot last time where my boom snapped, so that's one out of the way. At the moment I've got two broken fingers from a knock-down. I've got them strapped together. They are badly broken, so I haven't got out of these waters unscathed. It's hard to work with them strapped-up. You can't wear a glove on that hand.
Kojiro Shiraishi, SPIRIT OF YUKOH:
"This morning we were greeted with a dying wind and more struggles. Absolutely no Wind! Can it be so? It is like a different world to yesterday. I could not believe that two days could be so opposite I feel the cruel side of nature all too soon."
Bernard Stamm, CHEMINEES POUJOULAT
"A lot of work today. I just went through the low pressure at first it was a lot of southerly wind, more or less 45 kts, it was good for speed. The problem is that the low has stopped heading south-east and started to go north! I had to go as fast as possible to indextain my scenario, otherwise I should be caught by the centre or pass on the wrong side."
Boat Positions as at 10:20 UTC 14 February 2007
Yacht
Skipper
Latitude
Longitude
Course (°)
Speed (knot)
DTL (nautical miles)
DTF (nautical miles)
Dist - last Pos (nautical miles)
Dist - 24h (nautical miles)
Average speed - 24h (knots)
VMG - 24h (knots)
1
Cheminées Poujoulat
Bernard Stamm
29° 04.00 S
032° 33.00 W
42
11.1
4888
52.2
241.4
10.06
9.3
2
Spirit of Yukoh
Kojiro Shiraishi
54° 24.04 S
061° 29.88 W
61
6
1831
6720
40.1
151.4
6.31
5.76
3
PAKEA
Unai Basurko
55° 18.76 S
098° 04.20 W
129
7.3
3071
7960
38.8
226.6
9.44
9.44
4
SAGA Insurance
Sir Robin Knox-Johnston
54° 23.92 S
098° 45.48 W
147
7.4
3110
7999
42.9
212.8
8.87
8.87
5
A Southern Man-AGD
Graham Dalton
56° 04.60 S
101° 08.32 W
109
9.2
3160
8049
41.2
202.6
8.44
7.89
- END -
About Norfolk, Virginia (USA)
Norfolk, which is home to Naval Station Norfolk, the largest military station in the world, can host hundreds of vessels at one time including cruise ships, destroyers and submarines and once made history when it berthed five nuclear aircraft carriers at the same time. The port will provide the skippers and ground crews of the VELUX 5 OCEANS with world class facilities.
The City is bordered by the Chesapeake Bay and the Hampton Roads Harbour, one of the most famous sailing areas in the USA which attracts hundreds of thousands of yachts and sailing fanatics to the area every year and has played host to some of the world's major sailing events including the Volvo Ocean Race and the Mount Gay Rum Sailing Week. The situation of the City also makes it an idea venue for the VELUX 5 OCEANS providing unique opportunities to watch the fleet arrive from vantage points on the coast and on the water.
www.norfolk.gov
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