Davies into fourth?

The Trophee BPE singlehanded Figaro fleet pass the Turks & Caicos islands

Positions at 0900GMT

Pos	Boat	DTF	DTL	VMG	Lat	Long	Spd	Crs	Spd	Crs	Spd	Dist
							Instant		4hr aver		24hr run
1	CREDIT MARITIME-ZEROTWO	529.0	0.0	7.5	20 44.16' N	72 13.56' W	7.2	250	7.3	256.0	5.5	132.4
2	BOSTIK	539.7	10.6	7.1	20 47.82' N	72 02.88' W	7.4	247	7.8	252.0	5.7	136.6
3	CERCLE VERT	571.0	42.0	8.3	21 00.48' N	71 32.10' W	8.6	265	7.3	257.0	5.5	131.7
4	SKANDIA	582.1	53.1	4.8	21 10.1' N	71 01.0' W	4.8	238	4.5	248.0	5.1	123.4
5	BANQUE POPULAIRE	604.1	75.1	7.6	21 05.70' N	70 56.52' W	7.5	251	6.0	250.0	5.7	137.2
6	GEDIMAT	611.6	82.6	5.1	21 11.46' N	70 50.28' W	4.4	238	5.5	258.0	5.9	142.4
7	AQUARELLE.COM	612.1	83.1	6.0	21 11.70' N	70 49.74' W	6.1	241	5.6	252.0	6.3	152.0
8	ATAO AUDIO SYSTEM	615.0	86.0	1.4	21 13.62' N	70 47.34' W	2.3	68	4.4	252.0	5.7	137.6
9	COUTOT ROEHRIG	617.0	87.9	3.9	21 16.50' N	70 39.48' W	3.9	226	5.2	262.0	6.2	148.8
10	TOTAL	642.6	113.6	4.7	21 32.76' N	70 25.08' W	6.8	284	5.6	237.0	6.0	142.9
11	ENTREPRENDRE AU PAYS DE LORIENT	706.8	177.8	5.2	21 36.66' N	69 11.40' W	5.5	263	6.4	256.0	5.8	139.1
12	LITTLE BLACK SHARK	802.3	273.3	5.9	23 04.92' N	68 04.02' W	6.0	253	6.3	250.0	7.2	172.6

While Sam Davies on Skandia appears to have dropped into fourth place in the Figaro's Trophee BPE transatlantic race, the situation is not as disastrous as the positions above indicate. The rest of the polls were taken at 0800, Sam's was from 0350GMT showing Gildas Morvan on Cercle Vert to have taken third.

In fact we understand from Offshore Challenges that Sam's position at 1000GMT was 20° 53.37N 71° 34.65W and by our calculation this puts her 37 miles behind race leader Eric Drouglazet on Credit Maritime-ZeroTwo and in third place still. Phew...

Over the last 24 hours the leaders have passed to the south of the Turks and Caicos Islands. 24 hours from now race leader Eric Drouglazet on Credit Maritime-ZeroTwo should be passing the eastern tip of Cuba. Meanwhile the battle is heating up for fifth and sixth places with five boats within 12 miles of one another - quite close considering this race started almost three weeks ago...


Sam Davies reports from on board

Hello

What a horrible day! It started to be horrible at about 5am (middle of the night here 22.4.05) when I saw a big rain squall coming my way. The wind shifted and increased. The shift was so big that I was way off course, so I decided not to run with it but to skim across the front.

Anyway, this little squall was developing into a massive cumulonimbus, right on top of me and there was no way of escape. Eventually the lightning and thunder started and I got a bit scared when I saw big bolts of lightning coming from the base of the cloud right down onto the horizon around me! I turned all my instruments off except the nke, in case I got hit.

The end of the thunderstorm coincided with dawn for me and I was left in ABSOLUTELY NO wind! Horrible, and nothing I could do. I sat there for three hours with the sails going "clack - clack" from side to side with the moition of the swell. That is so violent, that I was afraid something would break!

Eventually, I saw a sail on the horizon. That signified good news and bad news: The sail was full, so the good news was that the wind was coming back. Bad news - it was Gildas, who had been 8 miles behind, so my thunderstorm had lost me 8 miles. I was, as you can imagine, pretty depressed!

But, it was not my stupidity - the storm just happened to develop on top of me. AND, now I am with Gildas, it is motivating, like in the other shorter Figaro races as we are sailing and "'speed testing' against each other all the time, so I am guaranteed to be sailing fast. I hope we keep the contact for a long time becasue I am sure we will gain on the others that way.

The rest of the day has been downwind in very light wind, sometimes 'gusting' to 10 knots! We have been gybing together (me and Gildas) towards the Turks waypoint. Right now, it is 10 miles in front! Hooray - at last we are out of the Atlantic, and I have made it across in the "top" part of the peloton.

When we first saw each other, we had a little chat on the VHF. It was funny to talk to another skipper. We compared notes - breakages (none, except my spi and his twisted knee), diesel consumption, how good the pilots are and how stable the Figaro is under spinnaker going fast, solar panels...

Right now, it is still very light winds and we are trickling along. I hope that there will be some stable wind tonight because I have not rested since before my thunderstorm and I am starting to feel tired. It is getting hard to sleep during the day because it is so hot. But it is impossible to sleep if there is little or no wind and it is shifting all the time because you have to be constantly adjusting the trim.

Sam
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