© Photo Richard Konkolski
© Photo Richard Konkolski
Giovanni Soldini was the first to return to the Northern Hemisphere after months of sailing south of the equator. Right now he was in center of the Doldrums which covered a belt from 4N to 4S. Despite very light wind he was still doing almost five knots and it looked like he would be the first of the fleet to reach the desirable northeast trade winds. Giovanni was able to stretch his lead on Thiercelin to 97 miles.
The two other closest sailors, rival Thiercelin and Class II leader Garside, closely followed Soldini’s course. Mike Garside was holding the Class II lead for almost two weeks, the longest time he had ever been able stay in front during the whole race. He was 204 miles in front of Mouligne and steadily gaining. JP shredded mainsail and had infected knee, which slowed him down, but Garside had also set of his own problems and worries.
Mike Garside
One of his rudders completely separated from the other one. The only way he managed to fix it was to some temporary lashing."I've got a completely jury-rigged tiller to one of my rudders," he said over COMSAT phone, taking a momentary break from the race. Whether the repair would hold to Charleston, nobody knows. "I don't know if it will hold anymore than J.P.'s sail," Garside said.
He was also lacking weather data. Just before the start Garside’s computer program crashed and since that he was receiving incomplete weather data. His weather fax brooked as well. In this leg Garside relied most on strategy of following the Class I leader, Giovanni Soldini.
Mouligne, who was realistically dreaming of winning all four legs in this race, was definitively not happy with his second position and growing gap behind Class II leader. He reported: "It has been a sleepless night as I am trying to round the tip of Brazil as quickly as I can. The wind has been strong most of the night but has just died a couple of hours ago and I am left with a bad heading and fairly slow speed. It is critical for me to get into some breeze if I ever want to make up miles on Mike. The time is now or never as he is going to be slowed down by the Doldrums, but I cannot afford to be slow myself way before it... It is hard to be patient and I force myself to be calm. I have stopped repairing the main sail because I am quickly running out of material and I need to keep some for after the Doldrums."
© Photo Richard Konkolski
| Place | Skipper | Boat | Latitude | Longitude | Dist. to go | Speed | Dist. to first | Time |
| 1 | Soldini | Fila | 00 41N | 039 08W | 3001 | 4.7 | 0 | 2140 |
| 2 | Thiercelin | Somewhere | 00 13S | 037 47W | 3098 | 3.9 | 96.7 | 2140 |
| Place | Skipper | Boat | Latitude | Longitude | Dist. to go | Speed | Dist. to first | Time |
| 1 | Garside | Magellan Alpha | 01 48S | 036 53W | 3203 | 7.7 | 0 | 2144 |
| 2 | Mouligne | Cray Valley | 04 54S | 035 10W | 3406 | 10.4 | 203.5 | 2144 |
| 3 | Yazykov | Wind of Change | 08 31S | 033 56W | 3694 | 8 | 491 | 2144 |
| 4 | Petersen | No Barriers | 15 48S | 037 15W | 4172 | 3.3 | 969.3 | 2144 |
| 5 | Saito | Shuten-dohji II | 16 52S | 036 32W | 4215 | 2.7 | 1012 | 2144 |
| 6 | Hunter | Paladin II | 17 27S | 036 14W | 4243 | 3.8 | 1040.5 | 2144 |
| 7 | Van Liew | Balance Bar | 27 22S | 045 01W | 4989 | 0.8 | 1786.3 | 2144 |
Copyright © Richard Konkolski
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