02.11.2006
26.3 knots on TEMENOS’ speedo…
At the 1600 hour ranking, the five leading boats had gybed to the West, some
leaving it later than others like Sill-Véolia, which extended its original tack
in an attempt to gain some Southing. The ranking is irrevocable; the latitudinal
separation observed within the group yesterday now favouring those on a more
S’ly course. Virbac-Paprec is reaping those particular benefits to regain the
leadership, and TEMENOS has made up some precious miles on all the
frontrunners. In fact, having covered 345 miles, the monohull has been the
fastest of the fleet over the past 24 hours; a sure sign that the Swiss skipper
is beginning to tame the brand new monohull…
Though the multihulls are displaying some blistering averages, the monohulls are
certainly not lacking. Once again not many skippers were able to take part in
the radio chat session, but hearing Jean Le Cam live announcing peaks of 22
knots of boat speed, we can well imagine that the skippers have a lot to do on
deck. Since last night, the leaders from the Imoca fleet have been making
advances to the North of a depression and are using it to lengthen their stride
still further. There are messy seas and conditions onboard are wet but the
skipper of TEMENOS is not complaining.
"There are cross seas and the troughs are around 3 metres high. These aren’t the
best conditions for TEMENOS to show what she’s made of so I’m spending a fair
amount of time at the helm. The boat is fabulous. She is light and I’m really
enjoying helming her. We’ve been making a constant 20 knots for a good while
and I have recorded a peak of 26.3 knots on the GPS", enthused Dominique when
contacted by his shore crew at 1630 hours today.
After gybing at around 1100 hours this morning, a rather tricky manoeuvre in
25/30 knots of wind, the monohull is now making for the Azores archipelago,
which the frontrunners are set to reach this evening. It will doubtless be a
delicate passage due to the numerous wind shadows from these volcanic islands,
some of which have very high peaks. Two multihulls got stuck there earlier
making less than 10 knots, losing numerous miles to their adversaries who were
flying along at over 20 knots.
Clearly, this will be a challenging passage, one where the race may not
necessarily be won, but may well be lost. Great care must be taken to avoid
this pitfall.
On shore eyes are riveted to the weather charts; the weather routers working
relentlessly to decide whether to cross though or round the islands. The
various strategies reindex secret, until tomorrow that is…
At less than 150 miles off the Azores, TEMENOS should arrive there in 7 to 8
hours’ time.
At the 1600 hour ranking, TEMENOS was positioned in 5th place, 81 miles behind
the leader Virbac Paprec.
Kate Jennings
Expression.
P.O. Box 26,
Dartmouth,
DEVON.
TQ6 0YG
United Kingdom
+44 (0)7795 116699
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