Around Alone Report for October 7th

The South is fast

A new situation now rules the fleet.  The farther south you get, the fast you go and the bigger your lead is.  Somewhere continues to lead the fleet and is located at 17 degrees north latitude.  Next is PRB also at 17 degrees north.  3rd in Class I is Gartmore and Josh Hall has his yacht at 18 degrees north.  Somewhere's lead is 35 miles over PRB, and 87 over Gartmore.

Although PRB continue to do well all is not nescesarially well.  For one, the forestay has broken.  Isabelle has managed a jury rig, but can no longer fly her large genoa.  As the fleet approached the equator and the variable breezes this could put her at a huge disadvantage.  Second, she reports: "In the beginning, when I was able to sleep only three hours per day, it was OK, but now, it's much more hard."  Research shows that less than 4 hours of sleep per day will cause a deterioration in performance.  Here's hoping Isabelle can get some sleep, if not we will see if she slows down.

Class II is still led by Cray Valley.   2nd still is held by Magellan Alpha who is 19 miles back and 3rd is Balance Bar 99.1 miles back, with a 28 mile gain in the last 6 hours.   At this point these 3 Class II leaders are ahead of former race leader Fila.   In fact Cray Valley has a 176 mile margin in Fila.  

Also in Class II Rapscallion III has overtaken South Carolina for 4th place.  Robin Davie e-mails in:   "Gudday from Driftsville, Another night of calms."  Surely this largely explains his now nearly 100 mile deficit to Rapsacllion III.

Weather wise the fleet is very concerned with Tropical Storm Lisa. This storm is currently located at 19.8 degrees north latitude and 47.5 degrees west longitude.  This storm is moving in a north east direction at 10 knots. The current position of Lisa puts the lead boats in Class I very near this storm.   Lisa can be expected to produce winds of 45 to 55 knots.  Cray Valley's J.P. Mouligne sums up the ideal strategy:  "This kind of depression moves counterclockwise and so I want to stay on its western side to take advantage of the Northerly flow."  And if you can't take advantage of it, Group 4's Mike Golding presents this option:  "With my recent damage record I want to avoid contact with this storm at all costs and am prepared to lose miles to do just that." 

Mike Golding at Group 4's Nav Station
Photo Courtesy of Group 4 website
and Mark Pepper

Also, you have a navigational consideration.  If you go too far south and west to avoid the storm you will have to go to windward to be sure of clearing the horn of Brazil.  Not an easy decision for sure.

If the leaders make the right choice they should speed up with the good following winds from Lisa, assuming that they suffer no damage from the storm conditions.