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Around Alone Report December 19

Fila pours it on

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

Several days ago, both classes saw new boats at their front.  Both Fila and Cray Valley have held and stretched these leads.  Cray Valley is now in the position that she finished Leg 1 in, for Fila 5th on Leg 1 it is perhaps more of a redemption.

Fleet Round Up:

Fila continues to lead Class I and the race.  Soldini's lead is currently 79 miles, 50 more than yesterday.  At last report Fila was hurtling along at 17.1 knots.  This should stretch Soldini's lead and perhaps set another 24 hour distance record.

Somewhere is still in 2nd place.   Somehwere's reported speed of 15.7 knots is fast, but not fast enough as in the last 6 hours Fila gained 14 miles.

Group 4 is now 3rd, 95 miles from 1st.   Mike Golding comments that the Southern Ocean is a struggle even for machines such as autopilots: "The pilots can gain or lose you so much. Isabelle PRB team developed custom software which I m not sure if she is using but is shows that this is an area of concern for all the skippers. In reality I've not spent enough time around the pilots and possibly am not getting the best out of them."  In addition to pilot concerns, Golding is still not pleased with his sail program: "Still we will have to think about sails again in NZ, its not so much different sails as different ways of using the ones we have."

PRB is sailing in 4th.  Without her satellite communications, her position is not as certain as the others in the fleet.   Currently PRB is 255 miles from the lead.  Isabelle still has mainsail track problems.  She has a meter of spare track onboard with which to effect repairs.   She plans on sailing north to calmer conditions and then hopefully make repairs.

5th is Gartmore 930 miles out of 1st.   Josh Hall continues to have problems.  Recently he waged an all on battle to get a gennaker off the furler and into the boat.  This situation went as follows: "An hour of take-no-prisoners battle with it later I had the thing back aboard and stowed down the foredeck hatch."  Still somethings are looking up for Gartmore as: "being kept in the freezer-like bilge, the eggs and bacon are holding up well."

6th in Class I is Modern University for the Humanities.  MUH's Fedor Konioukhov tells us that: "My favorite meal is milk soup with spaghetti."

Cray Valley is the Class II leader, at this point by 42 miles over Magellan. J.P. Mouligne reports: "I have not been outside in the last 24 hours more than 10 minutes total, mostly to make sure that nothing was breaking or getting loose."  As he races at 48 degrees south he keeps in mind: "you have to hang on here and not break anything, this is not where the race can be won but it is where it can be lost..."

Magellan now sits 2nd in Class II.   Mike Garside too has survival top of mind: "Nagging in the back of my mind all the time is the need not to break anything."  Still Garside is not too worried about staying in 2nd place: "I'm prepared to let him sit in front for a while but he's going to have to push Cray Valley hard to stay there."

Balance Bar is 3rd, 461 miles back.   While trying to catch up, Brad Van Liew says: "I did learn that light-air sails become much harder to manage down here when it is so cold (especially when they get stuck overboard)."

Wind of Change is 4th, 504 miles from the lead.  Wind of Change is sailing at 8.4 knots which is slower than Balance Bar's 10.6 knots.

5th is www.no-barriers.com.  Neal Petersen says his strategy is: "I am going down another degree or so as the barometer is rising."

6th is Shuten Dojhi II.

7th is Paladin 2.  Neil sums up the conditions: "Brrrr! It’s bloody cold down here."

The final boat on the course is Rapscallion III trying to make up time she lost while making repairs.

South Carolina has yet to sail from Cape Town. 

What does it all mean ?

Both Class leaders have gained distance.  As the miles click off, the chance for catastrophe lessens and the leaders see their chances of becoming Leg 2 victors grow.

Standings Table