The Race - 0630 - 6/3/01

The finish of Innovation Explorer will be the end of what racing there has been in The Race, Team Adventure (orange) is on her own as she heads off to do battle with the South Atlantic High, skipper Cam Lewis' mind and writing already turning to summer plans.

They are trailed by the slower Warta Polpharma (yellow), now around 750 miles behind and whose race experience has really been their struggle against the worst conditions the fleet has encountered to date. The navigator, Dariusz Drapella, has now had enough of a respite to write more fully of their recent experiences.

"Although we rounded Cape Horn at 1046 GMT on 2nd March, the battle really began several hours later. The atmospheric pressure fell to 956 hPa in 22 hPa stages, and in just eight hours. The gradient alone was enough to generate 64-knot winds, with gusts of up to 75-79 knots. The waves were extremely steep and short on either side and started to break, increasing to demolition levels. We came in close to Isla Nueva, south of Tierra del Fuego, but believe you me, it didn't feel as though we were on the lee side.

"Close to the coast, hidden by the hills, we tested the advantage of the biggest sea anchor on the market. Using the 36-metre long wavescreen, with the warping end of the line passed through blocks attached to the aft cross beam, we were able to slow her down to four-to-five knots, which was very efficient while it lasted ­ for 15 minutes in all.

"It ended up giving up completely and we had to cut it free and bring the lines back up on deck to protect the rudders and the lifting propellers. Still on the lee side of the island, we had to turn upwind so that she would drift under bare poles with her mast facing in the right direction. That was when we ran into hundreds of very dangerous waves, in 60-70 knots of wind, with a true wind angle of 70-80 degrees, the boat almost being knocked down in the same direction as the swell. Several breaking waves covered the decks, rigging and fittings. We lost a wind generator three metres from the deck, life buoys and a running light fell onto the trampoline."

While all that was going on, out in the Pacific Tony Bullimore and Team Legato were enduring seven days of calms. They are finally moving again, and they need to be - the only race left for Tony is beating the time limit for finishing, he's now 2,736 miles behind the Poles.

Standings (at 0300 GMT, 6/3/01)

1 Club Med - finished in 62 days, 6 hours and 56 minutes
2 Innovation Explorer 131.2 nm to the finish
3 Team Adventure +5256.0 nm
4 Warta Polpharma +6010.1 nm
5 Team Legato +8746.6 nm

Map images courtesy of Virtual Spectator, click here to go to The Race site for a free download of the software.