Gale approaching

For both race Bernard Stamm and the tailenders in the Velux 5 Oceans

Monday February 5th 2007, Author: James Boyd, Location: none selected

Images courtesy of Expedition Navigation Systems

Pos	Yacht	Skipper	Latitude	Longitude	Spd	Crs	Spd	Crs	Spd	Dist	DTF	DTL
					Inst		Last pos		24 hrs
	05/02/2007 05:32
1	Cheminees Poujoulat	Bernard Stamm	56° 08.60 S	083° 17.88 W	12.1	148	9.59	127	12.37	296.9	7461
2	Spirit of Yukoh	Kojiro Shiraishi	53° 23.36 S	129° 11.12 W	10	89	11.05	78	9.6	230.3	9136	1675
3	PAKEA	Unai Basurko	51° 30.04 S	155° 23.00 W	11	62	11.36	78	9.6	230.4	10094	2633
4	A Southern Man-AGD	Graham Dalton	52° 31.20 S	159° 29.72 W	12	82	11.24	84	9.79	235	10242	2781
5	SAGA Insurance	Sir Robin Knox-Johnston	50° 08.04 S	159° 10.00 W	15	77	12.1	86	10.79	259	10258	2797

	04/02/2007 05:32
1	Cheminees Poujoulat	Bernard Stamm	53° 49.92 S	090° 54.88 W	12.3	100	15.01	94	13.62	327	7748
2	Spirit of Yukoh	Kojiro Shiraishi	54° 32.40 S	135° 24.04 W	9	73	9.23	82	8.83	212	9352	1604
3	PAKEA	Unai Basurko	51° 43.84 S	161° 32.80 W	8	106	9.25	94	7.65	183.6	10319	2570
4	A Southern Man-AGD	Graham Dalton	52° 38.88 S	165° 55.64 W	9.4	124	8.73	98	8.07	193.7	10477	2728
5	SAGA Insurance	Sir Robin Knox-Johnston	49° 19.64 S	165° 43.00 W	11.1	116	8.57	108	9.81	235.4	10511	2762

	03/02/2007 05:32
1	Cheminees Poujoulat	Bernard Stamm	53° 55.87 S	100° 10.32 W	16.3	56	12.95	68	13.4	321.7	8055
2	Spirit of Yukoh	Kojiro Shiraishi	55° 24.48 S	141° 21.60 W	9	87	9.19	90	9.05	217.1	9554	1498
3	PAKEA	Unai Basurko	51° 24.68 S	166° 26.04 W	8.1	70	9.73	90	9.64	231.3	10502	2447
4	A Southern Man-AGD	Graham Dalton	51° 19.92 S	170° 42.36 W	7.3	146	8.82	119	9.67	232.1	10661	2605
5	SAGA Insurance	Sir Robin Knox-Johnston	47° 55.48 S	171° 15.00 W	9.4	105	10.75	103	8.64	207.4	10746	2690

	02/02/2007 05:32
1	Cheminees Poujoulat	Bernard Stamm	53° 19.88 S	109° 08.76 W	13	126	10.76	107	10.16	243.8	8445
2	Spirit of Yukoh	Kojiro Shiraishi	55° 18.68 S	147° 42.92 W	8	84	7.98	125	8.33	200	9771	1325
3	PAKEA	Unai Basurko	51° 21.80 S	172° 36.16 W	11	74	10.33	81	8.8	211.2	10731	2285
4	A Southern Man-AGD	Graham Dalton	50° 39.72 S	176° 45.08 W	10	81	10.55	87	7.66	183.9	10893	2448
5	SAGA Insurance	Sir Robin Knox-Johnston	48° 03.88 S	176° 24.12 W	12.3	113	10.49	117	8.92	214.1	10931	2486

Finally the tables are turning on Bernard Stamm and his Cheminees Poujoulat, although this is likely to be of little consequence to the Swiss race leader of the Velux 5 Oceans. This morning finds Stamm some 540 miles due west of Cape Horn on the verge of falling off the back of the depression to his east. This system is forecast to head east rapidly over the course of today leaving Stamm to contend with a building southern breeze. These strong, freezing southerlies look set to stay with Stamm for the next 48 hours taking him round Cape Horn.

This morning Stamm said he had been preparing Cheminees Poujoulatfor the poor conditions ahead. "I'm really not lucky with the Cape Horn. This time, again, will be very rough," he warned. Stamm has been easing his way south overnight to give himself a better angle to approach Cape Horn in the southerly breeze and this morning, for the first time in a long time, has the lowest average speed in the fleet.

After diving south having passed through the first ice waypoint gate at the end of last week, so over the weekend the trajectory of second placed Kojiro Shiraishi on Spirit of Yukoh has been in an ENE direction, bound for the second ice waypoint gate. This morning the western end of this line is 530 miles away from him. Over the weekend Koji has had some respite from the week of light conditions he experienced trying to get to the first ice waypoint and has been making good progress in the northwesterly breeze between the high (off to his northeast) and the approaching depression, still a long way off to his southwest.

At the back of the fleet the three tailenders have now passed the longitude of the western end of the first ice waypoint gate. Some widely varying tactics are going on. After heading north at the end of last week, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston on Saga Insurance - still racing without weather information - has now headed south, converging with other two boats, as Graham Dalton has dived south and is now the most southerly of the three. While Sir Robin and third placed Unai Basurko are to the north of the gate, Dalton must still come north to cross it.

All three boats are currently riding the strong westerly or WNWerly winds associated with a giant Southern Ocean depression centred some 1,100 miles away to their WSW.

Unai Basurko reported: "The past few days have been pleasant, but now the next gale is almost on us according to the New Zealand forecast, and a falling barometric pressure rather confirms it. The three of us close together have not moved much relatively in the last 24 hours. I closed their latitude by moving south, which explains why I have slightly reduced their lead on the distance to leader basis. Now we are all gybed with a NW wind heading roughly east. The sea is grey, there are only occasional glimpses of blue in the sky or shafts of sunlight, and the squalls are all over the place, dark and menacing, sometimes with rain but always with those extra knots of wind that leave you on tenterhooks as to whether to reduce sail or not. The seaman says yes, the racer says hang on a bit longer. We worry and hang on as the surges rise in speed, for a while at least. Then the squall passes, the cloud thins and we even get a clear sky for a while and I measure the ultra violet radiation as part of a check on increased solar strength.

"We passed 109 miles north of the beginning of the 160W wayline this morning is required by the race rules. The additions to the pot mess last night were a tin each of beans and baked beans. Worked well and so healthy!"

Yesterday Sir Robin Knox-Johnston sent this: Today is the 50th anniversary of my going to sea. I joined the British India Steam Navigation Co's Cadetship Chindwara in the Royal Albert Docks and so began my apprenticeship. I had no seagoing experience at that time apart from 16 days aboard HMS Vanguard moored to buoys in Plymouth as a Boy/Junior seaman RNVR, as being a reservist was the only way to guarantee you went into the Navy when you received your call-up papers for National Service.

My first deep sea voyage in Chindwara was to East Africa, around the Cape of Good Hope as the Suez Canal was still blocked at that time. We learned on the job in those days and on the Cadetship we were the crew, a fabulous training.

Saga Insurance has been sailing quite well the past day, using the steady SW'ly winds to sail deeper south. The winds are slowly rising, but the glass is too, so I am not sure what might be coming. We appear to have been sailing about a knot faster than Pakea and AGD for the last 24 hours, but we need at least that. It would have been good weather for the spinnaker had it not been for the squalls and the waves throwing us around, so we are still using the jib as a reacher.

I’d had a small problem with the Maxsea dongle, but after some careful surgery with a clasp knife on its terminals succeeded in getting it working again. This success warranted the declaration of a headland! I can now at least see where we all are although I still cannot get any weather.

On the culinary front, the addition of a tin of stewed steak and some dried peas to the potato and onion stew made a welcome difference. I have spent the past hour, my happy hour, sipping wine in the cockpit enjoying the delicious problem of what tins to add tonight!

A good start by England in the 6 Nations and a welcome return for Wilkinson. Dispiriting for the Scots but they have four more matches to show their mettle. Today Ireland v Wales should be spirited. RKJ