Wind speed = 0

As Clipper Round the World Race fleet go nowhere slowly

As the Clipper Race Office keep watch over the eight-strong fleet, it is at the moment with much sympathy. With all the latest technology and weather information, we can attempt to forecast the fates of the fleet. However at sea, the sailing is nothing but frustrating. With all the weather faxes in the world telling you that there is certainly some weather out there, none of them help when all you can do is quite literally "go with the flow!"

“Drifting in glassy seas that reflect the stars,” is how duty Skipper Simon Rowell on Jersey Clipper described the sailing that both he and Hong Kong Clipper are experiencing at present. Romantic as it sounds, the reality is rather more painful and this sentence was quickly followed with a more realistic account...

Crew member Gareth Rigby managed to sail ‘with nine lemons’ yesterday. Gareth has not been floating fruit around the Indian Ocean though; lemons are the fleet's rather tame description of noughts showing on a dial and nine of them is rather impressive! Poor Gareth wrestled with “0.00knts of true wind, 0.00knts of apparent wind and 0.00knts of boat speed. "Although at least he was on course," said skipper Simon.

It could definitely be said that the Northern flank of the fleet is suffering at the moment. Hong Kong Clipper, not wanting to be forgotten in the news from the Radio Sched, reported that this was officially the least distance they have ever travelled in 12 hours. Not something that skipper Justin is particularly pleased with.

The middle pack continues to race close together, also in fairly light conditions. Adam Kyffin and his crew on Liverpool Clipper are definitely the Kings of the day, managing to eke a few valuable knots out of the boat. They leapt from 4th to 2nd overnight and have secured the best fleet run of 89 miles.

New York Clipper also fared well, gaining 5.2 miles on the leaders Bristol Clipper. Sail changes are once more proving vital to boat speed and, although tiring and sometimes tiresome, at present it is certainly the boat that keeps the pressure on and keeps changing sails to suit conditions that will stay on top.

Bristol Clipper, down South, are trying to achieve this goal and are experiencing some very different weather conditions. Taking a further dive to the South, skipper Binks reports this morning of a night of very variable weather. This is a sign that new weather is on its way to the fleet, but the in-between ‘messy’ bit is certainly keeping the Bristol crew busy just now.

Whilst preparing to gybe as the wind had moved further aft, they were preparing for this manoeuvre on the foredeck when a line of clouds bought with it about 20 knots more wind all in a different direction. Peeling to the heavyweight they settled back into the sailing, only to find that they would soon be dropping their spinnaker all together to sail under Yankee 1, even dropping a reef into the main sail. All changed back shortly after and since they too have continued with flukey, light winds to sail with.

In short, the sailing for the fleet at present is frustrating. All the promises of strong winds and big seas seem bogus right now – but they still have a fair distance to travel and Cape Town awaits them. The weather over the next 24 hours looks as though it will increase, but perhaps only to a force 4 at best as the low pressure that we have been watching looks as though it will scoot off to the East only brushing the Southern most edge of Madagascar.

One thing we do know about this part of the world however, is that it shouldn’t be too long until another pressure system builds and appears on the charts. The wind will come!

Clipper 2002 - Race 12 Positions
03:00, 10 June 2003

Pos Yacht Distance to Finish (nautical miles)
1 Bristol 1,889
2 Liverpool 1,896.3
3 Cape Town 1,896.8
4 Glasgow 1,896.9
5 London 1,096
6 New York 1,908
7 Jersey 1,976
8 Hong Kong 1,996