Please consult The Around Alone Report Users Guide for an explanation of this report.
Strong south westerly winds are expected for the Class II leaders. This should give them some fast aft of the beam sailing. With better breeze Cray Valley may yet finish today.
Fleet Round Up:
Cray Valley is 1st in Class II by 70 miles 5 less than yesterday. Cray Valley is sailing at 4.7 knots. Although slow, it is faster than Magellan. Currently Cray Valley's ETA is 0512 tomorrow morning. However a filling south westerly could shave hours off and put Cray Valley in Punta today.
Magellan Alpha is now 2nd 70 miles back. It seems as though Magellan's charge to the front has stalled. Further Mike Garside reports, "My main is totally finished and will blow apart at the puff of a magic dragon." Not good news for a boat trying to catch up.
Balance Bar is 3rd in Class II by 156 miles, 12 less than yesterday. Several days ago Brad Van Liew anticipated southwesterly winds and said: "one forecast predicts that they will shift back to the Southwest. If this happens we will have nice reaching conditions which unfortunately favor the Finot Twins." In short it looks like Balance Bar will finish 3rd.
Next is the first of the 40 foot Class II entries, Wind of Change. Wind of Change is 559 miles back.
Next is Shuten Dojhi II. Shuten lies 2078 miles from 1st place.
Next is www.no-barriers.com. Neal Petersen is 2225 miles back. Neal comments, "I am sleeping quite a bit on this leg as well. It is the only place warm and passes the hours quickly. I must be getting close to 10 hours sleep every 24 hours, and sometimes I am getting them in 3-hour-long naps."
Paladin 2 comes next 2883 miles back.
Somewhere has reached the Falklands. Somewhere plans to be back racing by tomorrow.
What does it all mean ?
The coming southwesterly is a good omen for Cray Valley. With a weakness in upwind conditions the wind going aft should speed Cray Valley to victory. Also, the shift should preserve Magellan's 2nd, and seal Balance Bar's 3rd.