Around Alone Report January 16

20 miles seperate No Barriers from Shuten

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

5 boats are still racing. In particular two boats, No Barriers and Shuten Dojhi II are looking to recreate the close finish that Balance Bar and Magellan had.

Fleet Round Up:

Of the 5 still racing the leader is  Shuten Dojhi II 950miles from finishing.  Shuten sailed  185 miles towards Auckland in the last 24 hours.  At last report she was sailing at 5.3 knots.   Shuten's ETA is Friday the 22nd.

Next is www.no-barriers.com 960 miles from the end of Leg 2.  Neal Petersen has a plan to deal with the Tasman Sea's high pressure, "I want to skirt around the bottom then the right hand side to keep the wind"  So far its working asNeal has closed to just 20 miles behind Shuten.

Neil Hunter is next on Paladin 2, 1406 miles fro Auckland.     Neil Hunter reports: "Yesterday was a beautiful day for sailing. Toally clear sunny sky with not a hint of a cloud and an 18-21 kt northerly breeze."

South Carolina has 2464miles left of Leg 2.  Robin Davie comments, "Last nights gale was a short sharp and sweat little beastie. The northerly winds were rising all the time and made reaching the 46 degrees south waypoint area a bit of a bear, the last 6 miles north took the best part of 3 hours, mainly because the monitor self steering took it into its head to bend a safety tube or two."  Still, South Carolina has made this waypoint.  ETA is still 3 February.  South Carolina needs to speed up as the deadline is 30 January.  

Of the 5 boats still racing, one is Class I's Modern University for the Humanities. MUH  is 1849 miles from the finish, but still may face disqualification for missing a waypoint.

What does it all mean ?

No Barriers has Shuten in sight. Will there finish be as close, or will No Barriers overtake and lengthen the lead ?  If it stays light this may happen.

Cumulative Standings Table

Last Updated: 15-Feb-05 08:40