Enjoy while it lasts…
The front of the fleet is still in favourable conditions and stretching their legs. This morning the top 6 were again increasing their pace with 6.5 knots averages or more, on a very direct route to Cape Town. Damien has picked up the pace of Simon, Tapio, Abhilash and Pat by getting closer to them, while Kirsten has decided to try her luck further south and faster, away from them.
The further west you are, the less progress you make, as a calm zone travels from Brazil towards the east. The first to suffer are Arnaud and Ian becalmed around Trindade, the former not being able to reach the island and the latter seeing it longer than he would like to. Guy and Elliott will get caught tomorrow, maybe an opportunity for Guy to sort out his barnacle problem?
Between the head and tail of the fleet, Jeremy and Ertan are in an unstable zone of calms and squalls. They are making good progress but may well be windless this weekend when the leaders should be back to upwind sailing! Happy Diwali to Abhilash, happy dancing to Gugg, may they all enjoy this lenient week, the next one looks very different!
