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Please consult The Around Alone Report Users Guide for an explanation of this report.
Somewhere still leads Class I, benefiting from being farthest south. In Class II, overall leader Cray Valley has not yet been able to close on boats ahead.
Fleet Round Up:
Somewhere is 47 miles ahead of PRB. Somewhere is farthest south at 46 dergrees latitude. No longer is Marc Thiercelin trying to drop south. Rather he has changed course to 118 or South East by east. He is now sailing at a fleet high speed of 13 knots towards Cape Horn.
PRB is 2nd. It seems as though Isabell's idea to go south worked as she moved up two places. She sums up her strategy this way: "My strategy was simple: get around the Chatham high and catch the rest of the cold front, which isn't very active, but is better than nothing. The wind just shifted into the west, so I suppose the front isn't very far away. I'm continuing to head south." PRB has stopped the southing and is now sailing a course of 117 degrees at 12 knots.
Gartmore is 3rd 69 miles from 1st. Josh Hall is farthest north at 44 degrees south. He also is heading generally east. His speed of 10.3 knots is slowest amongst the Class I boats.
Fila is now 4th 72 miles from 1st. Soldini is steering 123 degrees at a speed of 10.5 knots.
1st in Class II is Magellan Alpha by 14 miles over Balance Bar. Magellan's 6.5 knots is the fastest in Class II.
Balance Bar is 2nd by 14 miles. Balance Bar shouldn't lose much, with a speed of 6.4 knots.
3rd is the current overall Class II leader, Cray Valley. Cray Valley is 89 miles from the lead. J.P. Mouligne recently had his masthead headsail halyard block blow out. J.P. went up the mast to deal with the halyard and his wind instruments. J.P. reports the following results from his time aloft: "At least I was able to run a new halyard and after sorting out the mess created on deck by the genaker twisted in all directions I was able to hoist it again and it is flying nicely at the moment." Cray Valley may drop back more, as she is sailing at only 4.0 knots.
Next is the first of the 40 foot Class II entries, Wind of Change. Wind of Change is 104 miles back, sailing at 2.3 knots slowest in the class.
Paladin 2 comes next 179 miles back. Neil Hunter comments: "All’s well on board, touch wood, and have just had one broken shackle since leaving Auckland."
Next is Shuten Dojhi II. Shuten lies 186 miles from 1st place.
Next is www.no-barriers.com. Neal Petersen is 188 miles back. Neal reports: "My bilges were filling with water and today I figured out why. When we were out of the water, we sat in a cradle that reached up the sides of the boat." Neal states that this has caused a leak in his port water ballast tank. He estimates over 135 gallons of water emptied into the bilge in 3 hours. Neal is seeking a solutions to this problem.
What does it all mean ?
In class I, the more south the better it seems. For now seems like the two French boats are best off.