Day 38, Monday November 2, 1998

Standing on the deck of his Gartmore Hall looked happy and relieved to finally arrive at Cape Town. Under his blue spinnaker he crossed the finish line at 2:58 p.m. local time after a 36 days, 20 hours, 43 minutes and 49 seconds at sea and took fourth place.

Josh Hall © Foto Billy Black

Disappointed to be fourth, Hall said the last four days were difficult as he watched the top three competitors double their lead on him. But last night was very fast. He was sailing at 14 to 15-knots. Later, passing through the front, his speed did not drop under 18 knots for five hours. Twice, he found himself surfing at 31 knots for as long as five minutes. "The helm was so light... At least I think it was I didn't really dare move it! She was just on rails, a little taste of the next leg, I guess", he said.

Gartmore
Hall was about 48 hours behind Leg 1 winner Mike Golding. That was a lot of hours to make up. But Josh thought it still possible.

In Class 2 JP had 870 miles to go to Cape Town and he was happy to get onto the Eastern Hemisphere. On Saturday the wind shifted from Northwest to Southwest and he gibed to starboard tack for the first time in 2 weeks. He was sailing very conservatively with a double reefed main and staysail. "But it is hard to get Cray Valley to slow down!" he said. He was looking to finish soon." Still that steak with French fries, looming on the horizon, has never sounded so good..." he mentioned.

© Foto Richard Konkolski

He made another 33 miles on Balance Bar. Third placed Garside reported: "There's no doubt JP has got a stranglehold on the last 1,000 miles of this leg. He pulls away from Brad and me by 5 to 10 miles at each six-hourly report. He's taken 45 miles off me in the last 24 hours. Brad managed 9 but I had taken 8 off him yesterday. The two of us are level pegging."

He continued: "So far so good. The third thing hasn't gone wrong yet. After the collapse of the last pilot on Saturday and the electrical fire on Sunday I had high hopes of something else interesting to keep me occupied on Monday. But no such luck - or should I say 'bad luck' - thank heavens. Still, I'm ever wary."

Magellan Alpha

Robin Davie was fighting hard to keep his fourth Class II place. He wrote: "We put 90 miles on the clock which may not seem to much, but its a bit more than yesterday, and hopefully tomorrow will be a bit more again as we gradually get to grips with getting some good miles out of a rudderless boat. It takes a while to work all the little angles and foibles out. With the wind just forward of the beam its been a fairly steady and easy day, and that has given me the opportunity to start working on the emergency rudder - called 'M-RUD' - its an emergency rudder attachment that fits onto the monitor self-steering gear instead of the pendulum. By this evening we had it all bolted together - and the emergency M-RUD hung for an initial fitting - still a bit wobbly, so off it came for extra stiffening and modification- got to keep a job in hand for tomorrow..."

South Carolina © Foto Billy Black

Yazykov was also pushing forward. He gained another thirty miles on Saito and forty miles on Petersen.

Positions:

Class 1

Class 2

Copyright © Richard Konkolski
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