Rhythm of the Race Slow and close with the top 5 boats under 10 knots and the top 4 within 285 miles of each other.

Standings table 

Top 3

1.  PRB 22:02 South 25 West
2.  Kingfisher 22:53 South 27.3 West + 72 miles 
3.  Active Wear  25:3 South 31:1 West +261 miles
 
The red trail is PRB.  Blue is Kingfisher.

Courtesy of:

Fleet round up section

Day 74 sees two pairs of boats at the front of the fleet.  PRB is still the leader by 72 miles.  This only a mile different than yesterday.  Seems like PRB is strung together with 2nd place Kingfisher.

This lead pair has begun receiving east winds.  It's a sign that the NE trade winds are not far off.  Michel Desjoyeaux has PRB sailing at 11 knots, 1.5 faster than Kingfisher.  Kingfisher's wind is more NE than Desjoyeaux's east wind.  Although his lead had been chopped way down, Desjoyeaux is far enough ahead to get the trades first.  Perhpas his lead will now again grow.

The second pairing is led by 3rd place Active Wear, 261 miles back.  29 miles back is 4th place Sill.  They are sailing at 6 to 7 knots in NW winds.  As the pair in front enters the trades, this pair may lose some of their recent gains.

PRB and Kingfisher has crossed their southbound tracks.  On 16 November, near the waters they sail in today, PRB led Sobedo by 16 miles.  

Bernard Gallay rounded Cape Horn for the 2nd time in his carrer sailing Voila Fr.

Skipper Communications

 Bernard Gallay Voila Fr. "The Pacific Ocean was quite quiet. But yesterday rounding Horn was quite difficult. I went really near, an amazing scenery. The last time (ndr: during the Vendée Globe 92-93) I was a bit too far and I was not racing any more (ndr: Bernard had to stop in New -Zealand for some auto-pilot problems). This time the sea was difficult, with a bad visibility. And suddenly it appeared to me in surf in the same time as some rays of sun. It was beautiful."

Mike Golding Group 4 "I kept a reasonable speed up after Cape Horn for a few hours but now I find myself in an uncharted weather pattern. Even now I’m struggling to make 5 knots in very light airs. I’m tweaking the boat the whole time, it’s difficult to keep her moving, it’s difficult to sleep too. As soon as you shut your eyes things change. It’s very difficult conditions."

Roland Jourdain Sill "I take the lighter airs in my stride, best to be philosophical about it and see how it evolves. It’s our job, to be out here...We’re out here to push the boat and the sport further. It’s rather amazing, I think. What we’ve been through in 3 months, it’ll be engraved on our memory. I’ve found this race to be truly adventurous too. But for me a more adventurous thing to do would be to go and stand at Bombay train station surrounded by millions of people. To go somewhere, which I don’t know at all, that’s more of an adventure."


Marc Thiercelin Active Wear "I might be a bit too crazy. I am pushing big time. Sometimes I reduce but the mast looks strange. And I have no intentention what so ever to let it go. I miss one spinnaker but bo other sails unlike Ellen."

Ellen Macarthur Kingfisher "It feels good to know that Michel is stuck. It must have been hard for him but it’s not over yet. We are in the same weather system but he is still further in the North and that’s where I have to go, and when the wind kicks in he’ll get going first....Anyone could still win this race. No-one could have imagined the pace and speed of this race before the start. It’s unprecedented. Suddenly you see how important boat speed is."

Current Weather Top 4 boats nearing the NE trades.

Weather Forecast NE trades will produce a starboard tack reach.

What does it all mean

After a slow, tactical, frustrating phase the leaders will now move into a higher speed one.  They will be reaching at speed on starboard tack.  The next set of gains and losses will be from boat speed not high pressure.