19 April 2012
Sec. Hayai is back in the race as Van Vuuren and Beusker leave Brazil
At 20:30 GMT on Wednesday night, the Dutch Global Ocean Race (GOR) team of Erik van Vuuren and Yvonne Beusker restarted racing from Fortaleza, Brazil, coming out of the blocks going fast, hitting ten knot averages as they pulled away from the coast with Class40 Sec. Hayai and reindex the only double-handed team south of the Equator.
The South African duo of Nick Leggatt and Phillippa Hutton-Squire crossed into the Northern Hemisphere with Phesheya-Racing in third place on Wednesday sailing west of a windless, Doldrums-void spreading across the North Atlantic, but were slowed by a two-knot foul current and have lost ground to second placed Marco Nannini and Sergio Frattaruolo with Financial Crisis. Meanwhile the fleet leaders, Conrad Colman and Scott Cavanough continued to pull ahead averaging over 12 knots for a period of six hours as Cessna Citation digs in to the North East Trade Winds.
Phesheya-Racing crossed the Equator at 16:00 GMT on Wednesday, the second crossing for Phillippa Hutton-Squire, but the 18th for Nick Leggatt whose Equator crossings include the big multihulls Playstation, Daedalus, Sodebo and Groupama: “I don't think today's was as exciting as some the multihull crossing he has done, but it’s an achievement in itself to skipper a double-handed boat around the world!” commented Phillippa Hutton-Squire early on Thursday. The sun was setting as the South African team crossed the line: “We opened our bottle of bubbles from bluQube and made our toast to Neptune for getting us this far safely; to the boat and then to all our families, friends, sponsors and supporters and, finally ourselves!” she explains. “With the downwind Code Zero up and full index, it was a lovely way to end the day and a special treat.”
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