Day 54, Wednesday January 27, 1999

BBMinoruSaito.jpg (21777 bytes)
Minoru Saito © Photo Billy Black

At 1:20 p.m. local time (00:00:20 Greenwich Mean Time) Minoru Saito finally crossed the finish line. It took him 52 days, 14 hours and 20 seconds to cross the infamous Indian Ocean. He was really happy to be finally in Auckland despite his assessment that the leg was easy with no big waves and no strong winds.

BBShutenDohjiII.jpg (27737 bytes) Saito's Shuten-dohji II © Photo Billy Black

The strongest wind that he experienced during the leg reached only 50 knots. During this leg he celebrated his 65th birthday. This was the third solo race around the world for the oldest competitor in the race.

MSPetersen5.jpg (12585 bytes)
Neal Petersen © Photo Marek Slodownik

About six hours later arrived Neal Petersen on his 40-foot No Barriers to take sixth place after a passage of 52 days, 20 hours, 12 minutes and 27 seconds. He felt tremendous to have the second leg behind him. He said: "It was difficult. I expected to see west to southwest winds, and I saw a fair amount. But there was also a lot of northeast; I didn't expect as much. The seas were big and frightening. It's not a place for the faint-hearted. I'm just glad everything went smoothly. It was a big psychological barrier to overcome, but I just took it one day at a time."

BBNoBarriers.jpg (30822 bytes) Petersen's No Barriers © Photo Billy Black

Positions:

Class 1

Place

Skipper

Boat

Latitude

Longitude

Dist. to go

Speed

Dist. to first

Time

1

Soldini

Fila

Auckland

0

0

0

0

0

2

Thierceli

Somewhere

Auckland

0

0

0

0

0

3

Autissier

PRB

Auckland

0

0

0

0

0

4

Hall

Gartmore

Auckland

0

0

0

0

0

5

Konioukhov

Mod.Univ.Human.

32 50S

170 20E

326

6.3

326.4

1901

6

Golding

Team Group 4

Retired

Auckland

0

0

0

0

Class 2

Place

Skipper

Boat

Latitude

Longitude

Dist. to go

Speed

Dist. to first

Time

1

Mouligne

Cray Valley

Auckland

0

0

0

0

0

2

Garside

Magellan Alpha

Auckland

0

0

0

0

0

3

Van Liew

Balance Bar

Auckland

0

0

0

0

0

4

Yazykov

Wind of Change

Auckland

0

0

0

0

0

5

Saito

Shuten-dohji II

Auckland

0

0

0

0

0

6

Petersen

No Barriers

Auckland

0

0

0

0

0

7

Hunter

Paladin II

34 37S

173 38E

141

1.7

141.3

2144

8

Davie

South Carolina

38 59S

153 40E

1127

5.4

1126.6

2144

9

Stricker

Rapscallion III

Retired

0

0

0

0

0

Copyright © Richard Konkolski
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