Around Alone Report for October 15

PRB Shoots into Class I Lead

PRB skippered by Isabelle Autissier has taken the Class I lead.  PRB which has not lead since the leg's first days has somehow come out of the Doldrums in 1st place.  Isabelle sailed the boat hard, despite its jury rigged forestay.  She describes her day as: "I did a lot of maneuvers yesterday, taking in reefs, tacking, etc."  Looks like it paid off.

PRB's Isabelle Autissier

Still in 2nd is Mike Golding and Team Group 4, now only 18.7 miles back of 1st and PRB.  The Doldrums were a bit of a problem for Group 4.  At nite, Group 4 was hit by a succession of 4 squalls.  The boats was knocked down twice.  After the 2nd incident Golding realized: "The rudders had become misaligned, the tiller bar slipping on the rudder stock when the boat made some serious sternway after the knockdown. Having fixed that I had just made a cup of tea and was thinking about a nap when the fourth one struck."  With that fixed Golding moved onto more long term concerns.

One of these is his boat speed in conditions of 17-21 knots upwind.  So far, Mike feels that Group 4 is over canvassed or under powered, he can't get his Open 60 in the groove so:"It's frustrating as I know I have spent many hours going either too high and slow, or to low and fast." Still 3rd is Josh Hall and Gartmore Investment Managers.  He is 36.7 miles out of 1st.  

Fila is now in 4th, this yacht's highest placing in sometime.  Soldini too has had widely variable winds in his time in the Doldrums.   Everything from calms to squalls and in no predictable order he says.  Soldini sums it up this way: "The French call this area Pot-au-Noir, that I call the Black Hole."  Somewhere for so long the Class I leader has fallen all the way to 5th and 104 miles out of 1st. 

This lead pack should enjoy SE winds until about 10 degrees south latitude when the winds will go easterly.

The leaders of Class II continue their ever tight race.   Cray Valley still, leads but by a mere 5.1 miles over Balance Bar.  J.P. Mouligne describes the effort needed to keep even this small lead: "I have been up for 48 hours, and steered most of last night. The wind kept on changing all the time and I had to constantly trim sails and adjust the water ballasts."  He also adds that "Balance Bar,[is] the fastest boat in these light airs and upwind conditions." 

On board 2nd place Balance Bar Brad Van Liew has also been battling squalls.  This is his description of the Doldrums: "The local weather patterns are squalls and typically not many of the other weather factors play much of a role."  3rd place Magellan Alpha continues to be farthest to the east. 

The unpredictable squally weather will continue to see these Class II leaders through the Doldrums.

The next yacht in Class II is South Carolina 369 miles back of Magellan.  In this part of the fleet the breeze is in the 20 knots range and the sailing is on the wind.  Robin Davie describes South Carolina's behavior this way: "By dusk, South Carolina rides over the tops of most of the head seas, and crashes down with a hard bang and a crack after the occasional steep wave."  Next yacht is Neal Petersen and www.no-barriers.com.  Neal describes his situation this way: "We were bouncing badly off waves, sometimes being airborn for an eternity, crashing back into an angry sea."  The heavy air and pounding seas have helped the larger Shuten-dohji II come nearer www.no-barriers.com.   At last report Shuten-dohji II was only 3 miles back of Neal.   Farther back in the fleet Neal Hunter on Paladin II introduces a new sailing term(at least  to the American audience): "The wind is 10-15kts OTS (Aussie slang meaning 'on the snotta')."

At least until the Doldrums (around 8-10 degress north) these yachts should continue sailing in these boisterous conditions.