Bernard
Stamm (Cheminées Poujoulat) was still working this morning (his night) to
try and fix his hydrogenerators, re-join the race and preserve any hope of a
place on the podium. The weather has hardened, with 16-18 knot northwesterlies
sweeping down on the Auckland Islands, but Stamm has shelter in Sandy Bay,
Enderby Island, in the northeast of the Archipelago, where he anchored at
0500hrs on Sunday morning.
The diversion has already cost the Swiss sailor at least 600
miles and he has fallen 1,481 miles behind the leaders. He may well lose fifth place to as Jean Le Cam (SynerCiel), in sixth, He averaged 14.6 knots on a direct course overnight and is just 290 miles behind Stamm – less than a day’s sailing at current speeds. If Stamm re-starts on Christmas Day, as is possible, then he will be chasing Le Cam in the Pacific.
Behind Le Cam, the nightmare of complicated routing continues for Mike Golding (Gamesa), Dominique Wavre (Mirabaud) and Javier Sansó (Acciona 100% EcoPowered), in horrible transition bubble of high pressure south of Tasmania. From their respective boat speeds they are still finding different conditions on the water than on the weather models. Golding (Gamesa) managed just 46.7 miles overnight at an average of 5.2 knots. It will be no consolation to him that he has arrived in the Pacific. Behind him Wavre (Mirabaud) fared a little better with 85 miles, but his progress has been complex and with a lot of effort Twisting further south Sansó made just 74 miles and will need another of his monumental catch-ups in the Pacific.
The losses may even be worse than they feared on Saturday, as they could have to wait 24 hours for some solid breeze to arrive from the southwest. On Friday they were still of a gang of four, now they are three because Le Cam is in a different weather system and flying away – 408 miles ahead of Golding, 475 miles ahead of Wavre and 703 miles ahead of Sansó.
No comments:
Post a Comment