To the east! Or not?
The south is finally paying for Simon and Tapio who are getting easing winds and follow a more easterly route, the others being still on 160° at 0800 UTC. The fleet rankings remain unchanged since yesterday with Tapio, Simon, Pat, Damien, Abhilash and Kirsten still in the lead.
The *complicated* game consists in turning left early enough to avoid an unnecessary long route on slow boats, but not too early at the risk of getting stuck in the high-pressure centre. Anticipation is the name of the game, which is easier said than done for the GGR skippers.
They are playing the game without any useable Weatherfax chart from Rio. Therefore, can only make their decision based on the wind rotation and barometric pressure evolution to guess where the high is, as well as weather reports received from passing ships on this commercial route between South America and South Africa.
The back of the fleet will again be favoured by the early wind shift, allowing them to not go as far south as the leaders before turning left. The first sailor to benefit from this is Damien, pushing further east tomorrow as the wind will start backing for him. His 500 nm distance to Simon is not a handicap anymore, but will allow him, Ertan, and Cpt Gugg a much shorter route!
