8:34 PM Sat 31 Oct 2009 GMT
It's a case of d?j? vu for some of the teams competing in Clipper 09-10. The winds have lightened up across the fleet and dropped some of the yachts into wind holes reminiscent of those that gave them so much trouble in the Doldrums.
'Progress has been slow and painful,' explains Spirit of Australia skipper, Brendan Hall. 'We managed to claw our way past Team Finland but they have made all those miles back now we are both in the light breeze. The wind looks like it's staying light for the next few days in this area, so we'd better get used to it.'
Although light, the wind has backed around more to the north so on the whole the teams can make better progress directly towards the finish line, or the scoring gate which, at current speeds is three or four days' racing away.
Race Director Joff Bailey says, 'Generally the teams that are further south have slightly stronger winds, which is shown with their boat speeds, and these winds should increase over the next 24 to 48 hours. This will have the effect of compressing the fleet but will it be enough for the likes of Hull & Humber who are furthest south to catch the front runners before the scoring gate which is only about 600nm away? Or will it be too little, too late? Only time will tell.'
Edinburgh Inspiring Capital has been leading for much of the race from Rio de Janeiro to Cape Town and according to skipper, Matt Pike, 'Things are looking good.' He says, 'Although those boats south west do seem to have a bit more of a breeze, will they catch us by the scoring gate? Or will the much promised and sought after north easterly wind find us and give us a spinnaker run and the speed we need for the next 500 miles? We continue to study the barometer, GRIB files and the horizon waiting for the answer. I wonder if we tried cutting the corner too much? Certainly it is a shorter distance but we are struggling to maintain a good boat speed the crew is still haunted by memories of the Doldrums.'
The answer to Matt's question appears to be, yes. Today the lead has changed, Jamaica Lightning Bolt's tenacity and hard work paying dividends as they move into first place.
'Much to everyone's relief our tactics of heading east of most of the rest of the fleet seem to have paid off,' reports Jamaica Lighting Bolt's skipper, Peter Stirling. 'We now find ourselves in a very strong position ahead of the entire fleet by some margin (except Edinburgh Inspiring Capital) as we finally find ourselves heading downwind. Very shortly the spinnaker will be going up and then it is a dash for the scoring gate. The race is on to get there ahead of Edinburgh Inspiring Capital and California to pick up the maximum three points.'
As Peter says, the change in wind conditions has allowed the boats to flatten out after five days of massively physical up wind sailing and very soon all of the yachts will be able to hoist their spinnakers again.
Hull & Humber's is already flying, according to skipper Piers Dudin. 'We've finally shaken the trough which defined the first few days and now we're kite running round the left hand side of the South Atlantic High,' he says. The ride hasn't been trouble free, though.
'It was a long afternoon after we ran into the same hole as seemed to catch the other guys,' explains Piers. 'The kite went up but not for long and it was thanks to the windseeker (a very light weight yankee sail) that we eventually got moving again. On the subsequent hoist the halyard got hooked round the spreaders during the hoist and once the spinnaker was up there was no flicking it round as we'd usually do so it was a job for our resident mast monkey, Tom, to be hoisted up to free it off, which we had done in a matter of moments.
'The on watch has worked the kite all night long, with lots of communication and continuous course alterations, reassuring a sleepy skipper that Hull & Humber is being worked suitably by her diligent watchleader and crew. No mean feat when there's next to no visibility due to heavy cloud cover and a set moon.
'The rest of the fleet seem to be holding positions nicely. The long term forecast is definitely showing that south will pay off. We've been making good progress to the gate now whilst not losing any of our southing, although the rest of the fleet are not far away now.'
Uniquely Singapore is the boat closest to Hull & Humber's position but skipper Jim Dobie is more tentative when it comes to making the first kite hoist of this race in the pitch darkness - perhaps understandably after the spinnaker wrap of Race 2 which took him and his crew the best part of three days to unwind.
He says, 'Because of the dark nights and cloudy conditions I'm holding off the kite to first light to allow the guys a full day of getting used to helming and flying the kite as it will be fairly tricky in the night. This where the crews need to be able to feel the boat as opposed to just looking at the compass, one of the keys to this race will be how far I push the crew and make the decisions whether to fly the kite at night. It needs a massive amount of concentration and focus - a challenge the guys are looking forward to.
'Position-wise we are OK and will now start an aggressive campaign for the gate.'
Uniquely Singapore will have to watch out for Cork closing in on them from behind. The crew of the Irish boat are anxious to ditch their tenth place standing as soon as they can. 'We finally got the spinnaker up yesterday afternoon and, after a slow start, we are now trucking along nicely at 9 to 10 knots,' says skipper, Richie Fearon.
Qingdao is one of the yachts that managed to find a wind hole - or it found them - which had skipper and crew working through all of the options to free themselves.
'You can try every sail combo in the book, have the helmsman range all over the ocean looking for the tiniest puff of breeze perhaps helped by someone up the rig spotting wind,' explains skipper, Chris Stanmore-Major. 'Or you can accept that when your vessel weighs 32 tonnes and there is less than five knots of wind you had better just point it in the direction you want to go, select one sail combo and then settle in for the long haul.
'Note here that this is not to say we do not work our pants off to get the boat going as fast as possible with whatever is available - it's just that we have learnt to recognise that concentrating on one course of action and sticking to it is far more productive than going through our repertoire of evolutions, rapidly going nowhere. Once the decision is made it is time to mentally relax and test your sailing skills.'
Qingdao has been covering Team Finland for much of the early part of this race and the Finnish yacht has run into the same, unexpected weather.
Skipper, Eero Lehtinen says, 'The conditions here are more like the Doldrums, no wind stays with you for very long, it is sticky and damp, only the nice moonlight (when it gets through the thick clouds) makes our life easier in the night. Looking at the GRIB files and next few days' weather, things aren't quite that steady and sporty. Lots of windholes, sudden changes, confused weather systems and hence a massive luck factor to be included.
'The next few days will tell more and then again, the real hurdle of this leg will remain until very late. The monstrous high pressure seems to reach across the Southern Atlantic as we speak - its moves and development during the next couple of weeks will make all the difference to the fleet. And only then we will be able to start speculating in which order we will be finishing. My money is on... anyone!
'All we can do now is to keep optimistic while flying the lightweight spinnaker and trying to squeeze five or possibly six knots of boat speed out of it. We did have some really slow hours but most of the fleet seems to have suffered from slow speeds lately. We don't have the company of Spirit of Australia either; they disappeared further north after we both hoisted spinnakers yesterday.'
Most frustrated by the light winds is Cape Breton Island, who took a punt on a course through the middle of the fleet.
'We're in danger of getting a parking ticket as have run in to a very light patch of wind,' reports skipper, Jan Ridd. 'Yesterday afternoon and evening we were working hard trying to keep the boat moving and keep some south in our heading which was not easy as that meant losing all apparent wind. We tried many different sail combinations but in the end it was to no avail as last night the fog rolled in and the true wind dropped below 2 knots from the north. So we packed away the lightweight kite and were about to resign ourselves to hoisting the windseeker and settling to move in any direction we could when some instinct told me to hoist the number one Yankee instead and, within minutes of hoisting, we were sailing again with 13 knots of true wind and heading south east again. We're looking forward to getting further south and hopefully getting into some stronger winds and doing some surfing.'
Cape Breton Island isn't the only team hoping for a return of some decent wind. California's skipper Pete Rollason is marking his first wedding anniversary at sea today. 'I am looking for some nice winds to propel me towards my family in Cape Town,' he says. 'However at the moment we are experiencing relatively light conditions along with the rest of the fleet. This should all change in the next 24 hours as we all get further south.'
Positions at 1800 UTC, Saturday 31 October
1 Edinburgh Inspiring Capital DTF 2702
2 Jamaica Lightning Bolt DTF 2706 DTL +4
3 Hull & Humber DTF 2731 DTL +28
4 California DTF 2731 DTL +29
5 Uniquely Singapore DTF 2743 DTL +41
6 Team Finland DTF 2776 DTL +74
7 Cork DTF 2783 DTL +81
8 Qingdao DTF 2787 DTL +85
9 Spirit of Australia DTF 2798 DTL +96
10 Cape Breton Island DTF 2814 DTL +112
(DTF = Distance to Finish, DTL = Distance to Leader)
Full positions are updated every three hours and can be found at
www.clipperroundtheworld.com
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by Clipper Ventures
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