Around Alone Report for October 29

Golding Grabs Class I Lead

For most of the first leg Mike Golding has had Group 4 near the lead.  Rarely has Group 4 actually been in the lead.  Of course, an elementary rule of any form of racing is that the leader at the finish is the winner.  Perhaps, just in time, Group 4 has gone to the front of the Around Alone fleet.  Golding now has Group 4 sailing at 13.3 knots in 1st place by 6.3 miles over Isabelle Autissier and PRB.   Group 4 lies to the south of PRB.  This was part of Golding's strategy which he articulated in a Monday e-mail: "Still regardless I have been steadily working south in the search for better wind angles and hopefully some westerlies.  The way the weather is shaping up it's certainly not a done deal yet and I still have a shot at getting to CT ahead of both of these boats."  So far so good.

On board PRB Isabelle saw Group 4 coming: "TEAM 4 really is catching up with me. I think I got a little too wrapped up in my duel with Marc Thiercelin. Problem is, you can't keep track of two other boats at the same time."  Somewhere lies 3rd 47 miles back.

The 4th and 5th place boats have slipped back after taking tactical risks.  4th place Gartmore is 223 miles out of 1st, which is 37 more than yesterday.  In 5th is Fila which is at 40 degrees south latitude, 4 degrees more south than anyone else.  Fila's on the edge tactics are not paying off as the distance to the leader is 428 miles, 138 more than yesterday.  Down in these southern latitudes Soldini's sights are southern ocean like:"“At sunset, I saw the first albatross gliding between the waves. Just like that, without any effort at all. It didn’t even move its wings."

Class II is still led by Cray Valley.  Her lead over 2nd place Balance Bar is 56 miles.  This is a gain of 32 miles for Cray Valley.   Cray Valley is back in action after fixing a mainsail rip.  Skipper J.P. Moulgine used Kevlar tape and double sided sticky tape for the repair job.  Sounds straight foward but, "on a wet platform angled 20 degrees and moving at 10 kts with spray flying everywhere, it is not really the ideal conditions for a perfect job." These two boats have changed course to 092 & 093 degrees thus making the turn for the finish in Cape Town.  In 3rd place Magellan Alpha's Mike Garside sends the following message:   "This passage from Charleston seems interminable and the isolation hangs heavily round me."  Indded right now, Magellan is isolated from the class leaders and it seems unlikely that he will catch them.

Next in Class II is 4th place South Carolina 568 miles back.  Rapscallion III is in 5th 799 miles back.   After her is www.no-barriers.com, 1078 miles back.  Neal Petersen reports that no barriers is moving well if none too steadily: "There have been times when we have lept up out of the water, and would be airborn as I counted from one till five, before we would come splashing down into the seas."  Neal waits for the worst between swell, but after 60,000 miles he knows deep down that No Barriers will carry him through.  When you are solo, the noises of your boat can play havoc with you mind. 

The final 3 yachts in Class II are: Shuten Dojhi II, Wind of Change, and Paladin 2.  Wind of Change has closed to within 65 miles of Shuten, perhaps we will see closing here.

It looks as though the leading Class I yachts could finish this weekend.  ETA's are reading Sunday 1 November.