Bernard Stamm (SUI) hammers past the Longitude of the Cape of Good Hope at an impressive pace
Mike Golding (GBR) dives south and breathes down the neck of Alex Thomson (GBR)
Conditions worsen as the leading pack drop deeper into the Southern Ocean waters
After many days of challenging upwind conditions off Brazil, Unai Basurko (ESP) has sights set on Dalton (NZL) and Knox-Johnston (GBR)
Close to 1,000 miles south of the Cape of Good Hope, the first major cape landmark in the VELUX 5 OCEANS round the world race, leader Bernard Stamm on CHEMINEES POUJOULAT last night entered the Indian Ocean as he passed Longitude 18.29 degrees East. The defending champion from Switzerland has been clocking the fastest speeds within the fleet over the last day, despite reporting a broken halyard yesterday.
After clipping the western limit of the race organisation's safety gate, Mike Golding pushed ECOVER into a sharp dive south, crossing behind the stern of HUGO BOSS (Alex Thomson). The World Champion now hangs off the young British skipper's starboard quarter, stalking the second placed boat from a mere 34 miles.
Shiraishi's decision to stay further north, well above the safety gate at Latitude 42 degrees South, has caused the Japanese hero to lose miles on Golding overnight in terms of Distance To Leader as the British boat swooped south. However, conditions are still truly 'Southern Ocean' onboard SPIRIT OF YUKOH as the temperatures drop. The leading yachts are fast approaching the infamous waters of the Southern Ocean after passing north of the safety waypoints below South Africa. Although there is no officially defined boundary that marks the Southern Ocean, the brave skippers will certainly be in the thick of it below Latitude 50 degrees South.
A confident and contented Unai Basurko on PAKEA continues to chase down Graham Dalton (A SOUTHERN MAN) and Sir Robin Knox-Johnston (SAGA INSURANCE) off the coast of Brazil. The Basque skipper is hoping to make gains in his brand new 60 footer as he looks to push the boat harder as conditions improve. After many days of beating and sailing upwind, the skippers in the chasing pack will be hoping for faster reaching conditions that should life their speeds.
Bernard Stamm, CHEMINEES POUJOULAT:
"When we passed the longitude of Cape of Good Hope, we had some strong downwind conditions. Now the wind has dropped down a bit, but we are upwind. It's weird. The westerly flow should come back within the next two days but for now, it's south-east. It would be good if we were going around the world the wrong way! The air temperature is about 5 or 6 degrees and the sea is at 4 or 5 degrees. Inside the boat, the temperature is about the same at the sea and I curse the day when I left Bilbao without my fleeces. It's freezing cold and without them, it's a bit of a mission."
"My lead is quite comfortable but we never know if that will be enough. We will see in Fremantle. It's not over till it's over. There could be a high pressure system right off Fremantle as there often is and 700 miles could easily be caught up in those conditions and we saw that Alex and Mike can hold some good speeds. Before the gale, the gennaker halyard broke. The sail fell in the water and it took me two hours to bring it back on deck with another halyard and some sheets around the winch. I couldn't afford to tear it up because it's a very important sail. We can have it up in up to 40 knots of wind."
"The wind has started to have a mind of its own. There is a secondary low pressure passing and I will be near the centre. Can be no wind or going up wind. There are still one or two solutions to go around downwind."
Kojiro Shiraishi, SPIRIT OF YUKOH:
"Early this morning the front we had been racing ahead of passed over us. There was a big wind shift and we had to put in a gybe. We are heading a little up the course as we want to go to a little more south, but I think the wind will soon shift south again so the main focus now it to keep up the boat speed."
"Yesterday we had a day run of 423.9 nautical miles at an average of 17.66 knots! It is the best I have ever achieved in single handed sailing. A new record for us! Maybe even a new Japan record! In the last Around Alone race in the Open 40 the best I achieved in a day, if I remember correctly, was 270 nautical miles. These Open 60s are just something else!"
"But almost inevitably we have a few breakages along with this speed. The most surprising was having the cover of the staysail ripped off the boat. The power in these waves is unbelievable. Outside the skies are now always dark. Today for the first time returning into the cabin after some hard work on deck I could see my breath in the cold air. We have the Antarctic air with us now."
Unai Basurko, PAKEA:
"Right now the conditions are very good. I'm doing approximately 12-15 knots in a 20-25 knots breeze, sailing with a reef in the mainsail and a small jib. Last night was quite hard, because even if the forecast was for light winds, the breeze became stronger and stronger and, at about 3:30 AM, I decided to reduce the mainsail and to hoist a smaller jib, as I was sailing really fast. As a result of this situation, I couldn't sleep at all."
"The last three days were really uncomfortable for me. I've beating the whole time, with some extremely changeable winds and unpredictable waves that prevented me from pushing the boat forward in the right direction. Conditions improved considerably yesterday. I'm feeling pretty well at the moment. As Eric Tabarly once said, a competition like this one is something like a marathon: it's an endurance event, but you have several sprints everyday. I feel confident and I think I'm going to achieve my goal."
"The battle between Graham Dalton and me is really interesting. During the last four days we couldn't push the boats really hard, but now things are different. I decided to stay further west than Graham in order to do better speeds, even if my angle is not as good as Graham's".
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