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Encounters of the tropical kind
Are they going to call into Saint Bart's or not ? Current fleet leaders have a comfortable 120 mile lead over second placed Italians Giovanni Soldini and Pietro d'Ali (Telecom Italia), Bruno Jourdren and Bernard Stamm (Cheminées Poujoulat) and Damien Seguin and Armel Tripon (Cargill-MTTM). A three hour stop in Gustavia (compulsory minimum stopover under the Solidaire du Chocolat rules), would mean losing just thirty miles or so. Being able to repair, tweak gear here and there, take on fresh supplies, also being able to rest a while and hone the boat a little before continuing on the 1500 miles to Progreso might be advantageous in more ways than one. What a fine gesture of fair-play it would be as the three immediate rivals have planned to make a pitstop, or would stop if this symbolic gesture were to be made by the leaders.
Getting together
For the time
being, the race is the priority. Tanguy de Lamotte and Adrien Hardy (Initiatives-Novedia) are setting and
keeping the pace and are even gaining a few miles a day under skies which are
finer than for their gang of three astern. They are expected overnight from
Thursday to Friday as they are just 600 miles from the Caribbean, clocking up
250 miles a day. The easterly trades are going to lighten a little and slow
things down slightly, but the team’s textbook track indicates that it will not
be long before they get a wiff of tropical fragrances. Not quite the same
picture further down the field, the gang of three still pushing through a rather
unpleasant cloudy and stormy mass. The winds are much more unsteady,
alternating squalls and calm. Not easy for the crews to manage, particularly for
the Italians who cannot raise their genoa. These three Class 40s are in with a
chance of crossing into the Caribbean sea at the same time. Extraordinary when
you think about it, after 3500 miles racing.
Getting together
is the « in » thing to do it seems, as further down the fleet, behind
the Brits Tim Wright and Nicholas Brennan (Palanad
2), sailing a fine race indeed,
their compatriots Peter Harding and Miranda Merron (40 Degrees) are having to keep a close eye on the rear view mirror.
Finnish team Jouni Romppanen and Sam Öhman (Tieto
Passion) have sparked into action after having erred a while in the Azores.
On the same heading, this race within a race is turning into a pure need for
speed to get ahead. Eyes peeled for Chileans Felipe Cubillos and Daniel Bravo
Silva (Desafio Cabo de Hornos) who
are coming in from the north. The
Caribbean bottleneck should force them together.
A little further,
Jacques Fournier and Jean-Edouard Criquioche (Groupe Picoty) are going to have to be wary of Denis Lazat and
Frédéric Nouel (Plan, les enfants
changeront le monde) who have gybed thirty miles leeward. Likewise, the
British northerners Stephen Card and Shaun Murphy (Orbis) are likely to see southerners Erik Nigon and Marc Jouany (Axa Atout Cœur pour Aides). They were
apart in terms of latitude last week just a week ago. Some distance from the
main bunch, Patrice Carpentier and Victor Maldonado (Crédit Maritime) and Yves Ecarlat and Lionel Regnier (Vale Inco-Nouvelle Calédonie) are
following a parallel heading due west but should be in the same are a couple of
days from now. « Saint-Bart’s here we come! » as for the latter,
this will be four or five days behind fleet leader.
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