Day 21, Friday October 16, 1988

Isabelle Autissier continued this day to erase the lead of Marc Thiercelin. She was just 29 miles astern and with an average speed of 8 knots she was going twice as fast. Thiercelin sailed to within 20 miles of Brazil and was forced to tack east. At the same time Isabelle enjoyed a favorable wind shift and cleared Brazil on the same course. In her message she wrote: "The east-southeasterly wind is shifting more to the east and by the time I reach the point of Brazil it will be blowing from the northeast... Right now I hope we are on a good course to round the point... but it's not yet certain..."

Josh Hall and Mike Golding entered the Southern Hemisphere but they were about ninety miles behind the leading boat.

  Josh Hall's Gartmore © Marek Slodownik

In Class II Brad Van Liew held the first position: "I have been pushing hard to windward in an effort to hold off JP and Mike and the boat seems to be handling it well except for the jib lead cars. I have now broken 2 of the things and pounding for days to windward seems to cycle and fatigue them until they part. I only have four of them and with two having already broken I am trying to jury-rig the second and have yet to see how long the jury-rig will last. This is the most hard windward work into a swell the new mast has seen and I must say that the rig looks as solid as I could have ever hoped. I am at this point just trying to get around the hump of Brazil."
Van Liew's Balance Bar © Foto Billy Black

Mouligne moved on to second position: "I have been moving well in the last 24 hrs, hard on the wind but the crossing of the Doldrums has taken a toll on my main sail. Late yesterday I noticed that 2 battens had broken their pockets and were sticking out by the mast. I was lucky to be able to take the main down without damage and remove the 2 battens. It was dark and windy and I was exhausted so I decided not to attempt the repair right away and I just rehoisted the main without the battens. To reduce the stress on the sail I put a reef in and set the staysail for the night, but it is critical that I get this repaired quickly because I will lose ground on Balance Bar and Magellan until its fixed."
Cray Valley © Foto Billy Black

Mike Garside, hundreds of miles from land and technical help, has developed a serious problem with his canting keel. His keel's hydraulic system was leaking: "Things here looking a bit dire at the moment. I have sprung a hydraulic leak and lost enough oil to lose control of my keel," reported former member of the British Special Forces, "I have closed off the cylinder taps to try and lock it in position, but there is not enough oil and too much air in the system to stop it hanging to leeward and swinging about. I can't manually pump it back up, so I'm sailing on my ear! I am contacting home base to see if my shore crew can come up with any suggestions on how to fix it. The poor boat is getting shaken like a rat caught between the mast and a manic keel."

Minoru Saito © Foto Billy Black

Minoru Saito, almost 400 miles back, also had a tough day: "Good morning, but no good this morning for me. Now I can't use autohelm7000. Its starboard side drive unit bracket nearly broken and another portside drive unit no work. The control unit indicator reads "stopped drive unit" when switched on. This morning time I'll change another new drive unit."

Only Neil Hunter was experiencing another sunny day: "G'day and g'dmornin y'all. Looks like I've got some tradewinds now so beating into them to try and get a bit more easting for the hump of Brazil. Had a bit of a rolly/bangy night with a lot of cloud that is now just passing over. Looks like it could be another sunny day."
  Hunter's Paladin II

Positions:

Class 1

Class 2

© Richard Konkolski
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