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Last week the question was how would
the 5 boat Atlantic
Alone fleet skirt the light air of the Azores High. At that point
Fila and Cray Valley were committing to a Southern Route. Magellan
Alpha and Team Group 4 were staying north.
From the current positioning, it's clear the south paid. Saturday nite,
Magellan Alpha and Group 4 began to be shunted aside by the southern
contingent of Cray Valley and Fila.
As of Wednesday morning, Fila and
Cray Valley continue to
be the race leader, respectively in Class I and Class II. Fila with skipper
Giovanni Solidini leads Mike Golding and Team Group 4 by 317 miles.
Cray Valley is ahead of Magellan Alpha by 212 miles in Class II.
In general though, there are no mid
Atlantic rooster tails from
these high performance boats. Wednesday mornings high speed was
Cray Valley's 6.3 knots. Cray Valley's J.P. Mouligne sums it up this way:
"I am afraid it is the end of the big surfs for a while and a grind
for every mile, in oven-like conditions. The good news, if there
is any, is that I am not the only one with light conditions and
it will affect the whole fleet." Still Cray Valley is in good shape
trailed by a frustrated Mike Garside on Magellan Alpha who
hasn't, "had one decent day's sailing since I made that
disastrous decision to go over the high rather than under it."
In Class I leader Soldini is in high
spirits. He says: "I'm in
a very relaxing situation - cooking, sleeping well, reading
some books, listening to some music." His pursuer in Class I
Mike Golding sails on without his only spinnaker which he
has blown out. Golding e-mailed his tactical thoughts which
included these: "If the wind goes right I must Gybe and head
away to the South. If the wind goes left, which I hope it does,
I can tack and head North. I prefer this option as it gives me
better angles for the sail in towards the coast and possibly a
different set of conditions which might help me catch Fila." So far
Golding has been forced further south. This puts him nearer to
sailing in Fila's wake, not a promising tactical position for a comeback.
The fleet should not expect much
wind according to most
weather sources. In fact the fleet's weather forecast recently
contained a warning that "winds will become quite light in
all areas [of the race course by] the end of the week."
This will not make for fast racing,
but as the sayings go
shifts happen. Especially in light air, wind shifts and windless
holes can serve like a caution flag in stock car racing and bunch
the fleet up.