As more of the Around Alone fleet sails into the Southern Hemisphere Somewhere continues to lead Class I and Balance Bar keeps her spot as Class 2's top yacht. Somewhere sports a 25 mile lead over 2nd place PRB and 95 miles over 3rd place Gartmore. 4th place Group 4 is 108 miles out of 1st. These leading 60 foot yachts are speeding along at 12+ knots. This mean's 5th place Fila's 10.7 knots is not good enough to keep pace.
Balance Bar has a 9 mile lead over Cray Valley. However, Cray Valley picked up 6 miles on Balance Bar in the last 6 hours so look for a lead change. 3rd place Magellan Alpha has goteen over her canting keel problems. Mike Garside says: "Still a lot of oil everywhere and so a big clean up to come but we are back in business." Further he adds: "I now have a fixed keel boat without water ballast. It has been very difficult staying at the front of Class 2 as it was. It is going to be lot harder now!" Indeed he is now 45 miles back and may have trouble keeping up as one his boats most essential features is out of proper commission. On Cray Valley J.P. Mouligne has finished repairing his mainsail batten pockets, "The all repair job took me 3 hours of precious time but I was happy to see that I did not lose too much ground." J.P. adds: "I know how fast Cray Valley can go once we start reaching, and I will start to put pressure on him soon." Looks like J.P. is a man of his word.
The rest of the order in Class II is: South Carolina, Rapscallion II, www.no-barrirs.com, Shuten Dojhi II, Paladin 2 and Wind of Change.
Weather wise the northern hemisphere boats will have light airs as they head to the Equator. The leading yachts in the Southern Hemisphere should have 15-22 knot tradewind breezes until 10 degrees south, with boats to the west having a touch more breeze.