Please consult The Around Alone Report Users Guide for an explanation of this report.
Somewhere made a repair pit at Aguire Bay 75 miles north east of Cape Horn at 1030 GMT yesterday. Thiercelin spent over 6 hours making repairs.
Fleet Round Up:
Somewhere still leads the race, but
her lead over Fila is down to 108 miles. Somewhere is back underway sailing at 4.2
knots on a course of 013 degrees. The high speeds are on hold as Somewhere now is
sailing on the wind. As Thiercelin rounded Cape Horn for the 2nd time, he had mixed
emotions. He rounded unsure of his real feelings saying, "To find out what I
really think of the Horn, let's wait for my third passage of this bloody and historic
cape. For the moment, it's a place that remains mysterious to me, and that's for the best.
That's the way I like it." We shall see what meaning other sailors get from the
Cape Horn rounding.
Fila is now 2nd 108 miles back. At last report Fila was sailing at 9.0 knots, 4.8 knots faster than Somewhere. Fila was steering a course of 045 degrees.
Cray Valley is 1st in Class II by 167
miles, 29 more than yesterday. After sailing Cray Valley at up to 12 knots under bare
poles, J.P. Mouligne has rehoisted sail "I have been running all day with a triple
reef main sail and a little bit of jib. It is very squally, the wind goes from 30 to 45
knots in seconds and so I have either too much sail up or not enough." J.P. had
this to say on the outcome of Leg 3: "The race does not end in Cape Horn, there is a
long stretch to Punta and the boat that gets out of the Southern ocean with the least
amount of damage will probably be the first one to finish."
Magellan Alpha is 2nd in Class by 167 miles, a loss of 29 miles. Mike Garside has some problems that may prove telling later in Leg 3: "Magellan Alpha's mainsail is falling to pieces in front of my eyes." Garside hopes for heavy weather so he does not have to rehsoist his blown out mainsail.
Balance Bar is 3rd in Class II by 353 miles 80 miles farther back than yesterday. Despite a staysail problem Brad Van Liew says, " Otherwise all is ok and the boat seems to be holding up well."
Next is the first of the 40 foot Class II entries, Wind
of Change. Wind of Change is 547 miles back, a 26 mile loss. Without
a heater, Viktor Yazykov still has ways of keeping warm, "MY MOTHER IN LAW MADE FEW
PARES OF SOCKS AND MITTENS OUT OF DOG
WOOL. THANK YOU MOM, I FEEL YOUR HEART WARMTH."
Next is Shuten Dojhi II. Shuten lies 1736 miles from 1st place.
Next is www.no-barriers.com. Neal Petersen is 1987 miles back. Neal comments:The NNE wind still blows, but we were able to make 181 miles progress, which put me in a good mood. Now if we can only keep it up."
Paladin 2 comes next 2168 miles back.
From Paladin Neil Hunter comments: "Spirits are good on board, both mine
and the stuff in the cupboard."
What does it all mean ?
Using J.P. Mouligne's standard that the Class II winner will be the least damaged, perhaps a weather eye should be kept for Balance Bar. Combine the seeming excellent condition of Balance Bar and the boat's preference for upwind work the post Cape Horn stretch could take Balance Bar up the standings.