Following an initially slow start to leg 5 in Charleston, South Carolina, at 1430 UTC on Thursday, the Portim?o Global Ocean Race fleet soon dug into stronger breeze.
By 2200 UTC, Felipe Cubillos and Jos? Mu?oz on Desafio Cabo de Hornos had built a three mile lead over second place Boris Herrmann and Felix Oehme on Beluga Racer as the Chilean and German rivals averaged just over ten knots in torrential rain.
Reporting from Desafio Cabo de Hornos, Cubillos was the first skipper to describe the conditions. 'After three hours of racing we are in 20 knots of breeze keeping slightly ahead of the Germans making very similar speeds,' he explained. 'The breeze looks good for the next few days and this is good news,' predicts the Chilean skipper and 15-25 knots is forecast, although there is small technical problem on board the bright red Class 40: 'There is bad news, though,' he warns. 'There is always something that fails and after an hour some of our electrics went down and we have neither wind speed nor wind direction data. I think all the heavy rain has caused a short circuit,' Cubillos reasons. 'Whatever the case, this lack of wind information is going to make it an exciting race!'
In the latest 0620 UTC position pole (05/06), Herrmann and Oehme on Beluga Racer have moved to the front of the fleet, sailing furthest north with a lead of just under three miles over Desafio Cabo de Hornos. Furthest south, Jeremy Salvesen and David Thomson hold third place in the double-handed fleet on board Team Mowgli, 11 miles behind the German team, and solo sailor Michel Kleinjans on Roaring Forty is just nine miles off the starboard quarter of the race leaders.
For the British duo on Team Mowgli, the southern option is a calculated decision based on the Gulf Stream current: 'We have opted for a slightly more southerly route than the others,' Salvesen explained this morning. 'We should feel the benefit of stronger currents earlier, but perhaps at the cost of slightly reduced speed now.' This analysis proved correct and Team Mowgli is averaging just over nine knots while Beluga Racer is polling ten knots with Desafio Cabo de Hornos averaging 11 knots. 'We have had pretty constant squalls with wind gusting over 40 knots,' continues Salvesen. 'Quite a lot of lightning and torrential rain. In our experience, the Gulf Stream really isn't a nice place to be!'
The fleet are currently in approximately 19 knots of south-westerly breeze which is forecast to build and turn further west before reverting to the south later today providing good running and reaching speed as the boats continue north-east and begin to leave the American continental shelf astern.
