The leaders are experiencing some difficult weather. No, not high winds and heaving waves, but squalls that accelerate the wind and alter its direction as they pass. Its frustrating sailing as they have to stay alert for the squalls, which are hard to see at night and also take advantage of every wind change to keep pressing forward towards Recife, some 450 miles ahead, where the winds should become more stable.
Charlie Dalin in Apivia holds a 19 mile lead over Louis Burton in Bureau Vallée. Yannick Bestaven is 37 miles from the lead closely followed by Thomas Ruyant’s Linked Out at 44 miles and Damien Seguin’s Groupe-Apicil at 58 miles. All have been averaging between 10 and 14 knots for the past four hours in the right direction. Tail ender of the leading nine boats is Jean Le Cam, 183 miles behind. This group are showing ENE winds of between 12 and 15 knots. It's pretty tense out there with the boats so close. My infallible Clipper Race Deputy Race Director has estimated the winner will reach the finish line within two weeks!
Jérémie Beyou in Charal continues his progress through the fleet to 14th position. Japan’s Kijoro Shiraishi is the latest boat to round Cape Horn in 20th position. He is 400 miles astern of Pip Hare. Miranda Merron in 22nd place still has 1,200 miles to sail to reach the Cape. Sébastien Destremau, bringing up the end in 26th place, is about to pass south of New Zealand.
The Trimaran Maxi Edmond de Rothschild, 4 days 6 hours into her attempt to wrest the Jules Verne Trophy from Idec Sport’s current record set in 2017, has managed 785 miles in the last 24 hours, putting her some 145 miles ahead of the target and is about to cross the equator.
Just heard from Ben Ainslie, as tomorrow morning my sleep pattern will be disrupted by the first two races for the Prada Cup in Auckland, the start of the Challenger series to decide which one of the three challenging boats from Italy, the USA and the UK will finally go up against the holders, New Zealand. Ben Ainslie’s INEOS Team UK is racing twice tomorrow, once against each of the others, and it will be interesting to see how improved INEOS Team UK now is. She certainly looked a lot better earlier this week.
There is plenty of sailing excitement to keep us distracted from the spread of the virus at the moment.