9 April 2012
South Africans are up to second, but at a price
Picking their way through the oil and gas fields on the Brazilian continental shelf, the Global Ocean Race (GOR) Class40s are pinned to the coast by light NNE wind and a foul current. The two leading Class40s, Cessna Citation of Conrad Colman and Scott Cavanough and Financial Crisis with Marco Nannini and Sergio Frattaruolo tacked away from the coast early, but the South Africans in third on Phesheya-Racing and the Dutch team on Sec. Hayai reindexed on starboard in the light winds from the north with the fickle breeze running parallel along the Brazilian coast making the teams struggle to keep the boats moving.
By 15:00 GMT on Monday, Cessna Citation was clear of Cape São Tomé, but Financial Crisis was caught by the unreadable breeze and dropped one position, while Phesheya-Racing and Sec. Hayai were gambling hard for the wind to go right and avoid entrapment south of the cape.
On Phesheya-Racing, Phillippa Hutton-Squire describes the conditions last night: “We made way under full index and Solent, pumping ballast in and out as the wind picked up and died down,” she reports. “I gave up trying to count how many times we filled and emptied the tanks. Every time we thought the wind had filled in for the day, it died!” she explains as the South African Class40 averaged sub-four knots.
Having clipped the eastern limit of Brazil’s enormous Santos Basin oil and gas field, Nick Leggatt and Phillippa Hutton-Squire were heading directly into the Santos Basin field off Cape Frio in total darkness. “We saw lights on the horizon dead ahead,” she explains. “The sea began to light up and Christmas trees lined the horizon,” continues Hutton-Squire.
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