Around Alone Report for October 30

Golding guns it for the Line

Class I leader continues to literally gun Group 4's engine as he heads for the finish line at over 14 knots.  He is currently just 299 miles from Cape Town and the finish of leg 1.  His ETA is 2255 GMT Saturday nite.  His current lead over 2nd place PRB is 46 miles.   The fact that Isabelle Autissier can't use a genoa, or a gennaker due to forestay damage in finally hampering PRB: "I can't compete on speed without a genoa and no way to use the gennaker, so I'm going to salvage whatever I can."   From the lead horse, Group 4 Mike Golding reports: "It's horrid weather now though, gusty, raining and freezing. I suppose this is the Southern Ocean, but I had always considered the first leg of this race to be a G&T leg."   Looks like Group 4 will have plenty of stores left, including bread: "Amazingly I have 6 loaves of bread all still OK, at least it tastes OK to me. It's an American bread which describes itself as Old English bread from a traditional recipe - all I can say is it must have been baked in the furnaces at Three Mile Island."

In 3rd place Somewhere is 88 miles back.  4th is Gartmore now 370 miles back.  In 5th is Fila.   Both Fila and Gartmore are to the south and west of the lead yachts, and are suffering low boat speeds of 5 & 7 knots.  They both have altered course and are now steering 072 (Gartmore) and 061 (Fila).   This must be to try and travel north to get into better wind.

It is also now time to consider the races scoring system.  There are no points or handicaps.  Scoring is strictly on elapsed time.   So, if you are Fila and 624 miles back, you could be looking at a 3-5 day deficit from this leg alone.  Yes, you still have 3/4 of a circumnavigation to make it up, but it will make a hard job that much more difficult.  Fila's Giovanni Soldini sums up his situation this way: "Right now I am very worried."

Class II is still led by Cray Valley, who has 94 miles on Balance Bar.  Cray Valley's J.P. Mouligne has set this goal to help him finish strong: "I have set my goal to reach Cape Town in less than 10 days and really look forward to it."    Brad Van Liew has Balance Bar in the Southern Ocean and is: "having a great time seeing it for the first time."  

In 3rd place is Magellan Alpha and Mike Garside.  Magellan is 194 miles back which is 73 miles farther away than yesterday.  It seems as though Magellan's push back towards the front has stalled.  Garside is well aware of this: "An optimist would no doubt take comfort from this fact, but being a confirmed pessimist I can only see the situation deteriorating."  However, he will not quit: "I have an old battle cry I cannot ignore. It has been handed down through generations of my Yorkshire family – “No Mrs Garside ever bred a quitter!”

Speaking of people who never quit, yesterday was Viktor Yazkov's birthday.  Viktor spent his 50th birthday on Wind of Change.   On his birthday Viktor both recounted his dream of making Around Alone: "Of course all my life, since I first have read Joshua Slocum book, was a race to get here", and the people who helped him: "We always can see the famous sailors faces and read about them. lets mention now about those who together did a biggest part of the job to make it happened."  Viktor has Wind of Change in 8th ahead of Paladin 2.

The rest of the Class II order is unchanged, South Carolina 4th, Rapscallion III 5th, www.no-barriers.com 6th and Shuten Dojhi II 7th.