Day 10, Monday October 05, 1998

Fila © Foto Marek Slodownik

Soldini, who until yesterday had remained stubbornly true to the northerly route, covered 60 miles less than Isabelle Autissier in the same period and dropped to fifth place in his class. He was barely making three knots and even trailed Mouligne, Class II leader. He wrote: "Everything is ok on board but I don't have wind.... So I am not happy. I was trying this passage near 50W because I have weather prediction from the Internet that this was good for this position. So now I am in big trouble. That is life." Simply, Soldini stayed north too long and got himself into the center of a high. On Sunday 04 October, Soldini made a hard right turn pointing his bow southwest in hopes of breaking free, but so far it was too little and too late.

Even if Soldini escaped the high, he might find himself sailing right into a new tropical storm. A tropical depression now sitting at about 15N, 47W could turn into a tropical storm over the next day or so. If the system got organized, wind could rise to 40 to 60 knot speeds and Soldini could get himself right in it.

Giovanni Soldini © Foto Billy Black

While Autissier ran along at an average of 9.3 knots, Soldini's speed had dropped to a maddening 3.0 knots. Isabelle was tied for second place with fellow French sailor Marc Thiercelin. Before Soldini would free himself from the grip of the high-pressure system Autissier would be well clear of it and sailing in fair trade winds. By the time Soldini would sail below 25N where Isabelle was right now, she could be in the steady trades.

But Autissier had trouble of her own. She sent the following message: "Broken main forestay. All the rest is okay."
Isabelle Austissier

Soldini's troubles opened the door for Josh Hall who positioned himself in the lead, but Isabelle was closing fast on Josh. At the end they could get stuck in the doldrums and start all over again.

Shuten-dohji II © Foto Billy Black
It seemed that there were no changes in Class II. Minoru Saito e-mailed: "It's a beautiful morning! It's a wonderful morning! But no wind, no waves, calm, only big swells, no friends only whales, dolphins and birds, and probably coming a very hottest day too again." On another hand Petersen experienced different conditions: "It is raining, gray and cool. A front is overhead slowly passing through. Squalls come and go. The boat is damp with the constant drizzle and the deck is slippery."

Positions:

Class 1

Class 2

© Richard Konkolski
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