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Around Alone Report January 3

Somewhere and PRB finish now overall leaders

Please consult The Around Alone Report Users Guide for an explanation of this report.

Somewhere has become the 2nd boat to finish Leg 2, 2nd in Class 2 and 2nd overall.  PRB finished shortly after in taking 3rd in Class and overall for Leg 2. 

Fleet Round Up:

Fila has won Leg 2 finishing at 15:24:52 GMT (4:24 a.m. Auckland time, 2 January).  Fila's first place moves her up to 3rd overall, 24 hours behind overall leader PRB. 

Group 4 will be towed to Auckland to asses the boats condition.  Since the lenght of the tow is over 10 miles, Group 4 will not receive credit for Leg 2. 

Somewhere finished Leg 2 in a time of 28 days 20 hours 42 minutes and 0 seconds an average of: 9.93.  Somewhere is 2nd in the overall standings trailing PRB by 2 hours,

PRB finished 3rd in a time of 28 days 21 hours 53 minutes and 24 seconds an average of 9.92. PRB now leads the overall standings by 2 hours over Somewhere and by 24 over Fila.

5th is Gartmore 679 miles from Auckland. 

6th in Class I is Modern University for the Humanities. 

Cray Valley is the Class II leader, only 47 miles from the finish in Auckland.  J.P. talks about his last miles and says: "Now it will be 24 hours of pure adrenaline sailing, NoDoz and coffee."

Magellan is 2nd in Class II. Mike Garside says: "My own progress remains dismal across the Tasman
Sea."

Balance Bar is 3rd, 962 miles back sailing along at 9.2 knots.  Brad Van Liew reports: "As for me, I am anxious to get around the corner and down to Auckland. I have kicked in the afterburners and am doing everything in my power to nip at Garside's lead."

Wind of Change is 4th, 1244 miles from the lead with a lower speed of 3.1 knots.

5th is now Shuten Dojhi II.

6th is www.no-barriers.com.  Neal Petersen reports :". I have been making decent progress, and this is the
kind of sailing I prefer."

7th is Paladin 2 sailing at 7.8 knots.

Rapscallion III has now officially dropped out and is returning to Cape Town.

South Carolina is heading south to around 51 degrees south.  Robin Davie describes his thought process as follows: "The wisdom in taking the south route is a calculated risk depending on the weather on the
day, and a decision to go south needs to be made 3 or 4 days in advance. Yesterday's forecast suggested strong northwesterly winds, so we are going for it."

What does it all mean ?

So, Soldini's Leg 2 win has gained him 40 hours.   That is over 2/3rd of the defecit he started the leg with.  Figuring that there were 3 legs left to make up time, to have sailed 1/3rd of the legs and get 2/3rds of the distance back, he is ahead of the game.