Day 12,  Wednesday October 07, 1998

Tropical storm Lisa was intensifying and accelerating towards NE, away from the fleet. Actually Lisa was unusual for this time of year in this position. As the result of her, the so much wished for tradewinds would be nil or very weak, as long Lisa was south of 30N.

Somewhere © Foto Marek Slodownik

The front-runners were able to take an advantage of favorable winds and pulled away from the pack. They were able to sail south in fresh southwesterlies, but the leading boats were going to get large area of light winds ahead and no tradewinds. It was going to be very hard to reach the doldrums. Marc Thiercelin remained at the top. He was followed by Isabelle, Josh Hall and Mike Golding.

Sebastian Reidl © Foto Billy Black
There were still no reports on Fedor Konioukhov and Sebastian Reidl for the last five days, but everything should have been OK with them. Peter Dunning opinion was that the trouble was caused by: "high-tech items for low-tech individuals." Both skippers were having problems with their automatic reporting system. This system had been interrupted, so the automatic positioning did not work. Competitors were still tracked by other satellite network called ARGOS. This system can locate anyone equipped with a special transmitter, anywhere in the world with accuracy of 500 to 3,000 feet.

Project Amazon

Race headquarter was in contact with Reidl via satellite phone and was working on the problem. "It should be fixed in the next 24 hours," said Dunning. They had more trouble with Konioukhov, especially because of the language barrier.

Fedor Konioukhov © Foto Billy Black
Reidl and Konioukhov were not in the race to win. The reason for Reidl to race was a combination of a long-time personal goal and his mission to raise awareness of the dwindling tropical forests. Konioukhov entered to get an inspiration for his art. A very well known Russian figure, he had climbed the highest peaks on all seven continents as well as skied to the North Pole. He is not only a climber, skier and sailor, but also a painter, writer and philosopher.

Both had financial troubles. Konioukhov due to Russian economy, but lately he was able to find some financial help to be able to continue. Reidl was running a self-funded campaign. For a donation of only $20, the donor's name could be painted on the hull.

Class II group was led by Mouligne followed by Garside and Van Liew. All were within about 60 miles of one another on the distance to Cape Town. Mouligne reported: ''Lisa moved quicker to the East than anticipated and the fleet is safely on the west side, so it did not create as much havoc as it could have. The problem is that the moving depression has also sucked all the wind with it and we are left with a very light North wind. I worked all night trying to keep Cray Valley moving. In these light conditions you can go faster by steering than using the autopilot but you can only steer until you fall asleep. At least it is not like with a car and you go off the road at 100 km per hour! So I have been dozing at the tiller off and on until it became obvious than the autopilot could do a better job than I could, and I switched it back on again. The sun is coming out over the horizon and it looks like a beautiful morning. I am finally moving at 6 to 7 knots, which is no record speed, but better than what I did all night. Normally I would make myself a coffee and go after my daily chores, but I can hardly see straight so I am going to get some rest before I attempt to do anything else. At the latest position report I was holding a slim 20-mile lead on Magellan. I hope he did not have a better night than I did...! "

Michael Garside with his wife © Foto Billy Black

Garside was still unable to overtake JP. He had a very fast boat and he was very determined but right now he was 22 miles behind and questioning himself on how was it possible that since the start Mouligne outsmarted him already three times. Three times JP tricked this ex-British Special Forces guy into making an unwise move, which ended up in his trailing behind the Cray Valley.

Positions:

Class 1

Class 2

© Richard Konkolski
Return back to First Leg