Day 33, Wednesday January 6, 1999

Gartmore © Photo Billy Black

By morning Josh Hall was 73 miles from the finish line and doing 6.7 knots. He was expected to finish late evening. Actually, nine more sailors were still at sea. Michael Garside was 457 miles away and very disappointed with his slow progress: "In the first seven days of this leg of the Around Alone, Alphie left 1703 miles in his wake. In the last seven we have covered just 750 - well under half the distance and about one tenth of the total mileage we will have sailed by the time we reach Auckland. In the same week Brad has burnt up 33 percent more sea than me, with 1105 miles sailed, and Viktor Yazykov, almost as many as Brad at 1097. I have been caught up in this Tasman Sea high for a week now - and there seems no immediate end to it. In fact, it could take another 9 days to reach our destination. This would give Cray Valley a lead of 11 days for the leg. With the day-lead he had at the end of leg 1, that gives J-P an advantage of 12 days at the halfway mark."

Yazykov's Wind of Change Russia © Photo Billy Black
Yazykov was making the fleet's best average speed of 9.7 knots, compared to Garside's 7.8 knots. He shortened the distance to Garside by 146 miles during last 24 hours. Saito, who was next to Victor, was still 2344 miles out and sailing at an average speed of 5.2 knots. Neal Petersen, over 120 miles behind Saito, reported: "Today I logged off the Indian Ocean satellite and logged onto the Pacific Ocean Region. The Indian Ocean is astern, at last, as we have crossed another sea. Tasmania is 960 miles away, the second last turn towards Auckland. Tonight the winds have been fickle. I went south looking for breeze, then gybed to head east and now north of east with some light winds pushing us along. It was relatively warm here today."

Robin Davie © Photo Marek Slodownik

Robin Davie who was almost 2000 miles behind Petersen reported almost the same conditions: "I can only describe the weather as totally unbelievable - here we are south of 50 degrees south and well and truly becalmed - no wind - not even a light air at the moment - 0.0kts on the log. In a sentence - we ain't going anywhere fast - and I've just been overtaken by this afternoon's teabag...."

© Photo Richard Konkolski

Positions:

Class 1

Class 2

Copyright © Richard Konkolski
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