© Photo Richard Konkolski
© Photo Richard Konkolski
Soldini and Thiercelin were steadily sailing with speed of over 10 knots. Neither of them had the better winds, but Thiercelin had just a little more favorable wind angle. On another hand Soldini had a larger than normal main sail for this last leg. It definitively helped a lot in very light wind conditions. Few days later Soldini could be affected by a storm that was moving off the southeastern coast of the U.S., but until then both sailors should have speedy and easy sailing.
In Class II Mike Garside had re-established a lead of 209 miles on J.P. Mouligne. He broke free of the Doldrums and caught the northeast trades and it showed on his performance. In the meantime Mouligne was stuck behind Garside in a deadly patch of the Doldrums. For the past three days he made very little progress with his flapping sail. Unfortunately Mouligne would not see much wind improvement for at least another 12 hours or so. During that time Garside could extend his lead considerably.
Garside's Magellan Alpha
Viktor Yazykov just entered the Doldrums and was heading northeast in the hopes of at least making some northward progress. The Doldrums were wider further to the east of him, but they were beginning to shrink, which could help him.
The middle group of Class II boats still had reasonable breezes which should last a little longer, but the next day they should approach the Doldrums. Petersen turned the corner and got around the top of Brazil, pulling many miles away from Minoru and regaining his lost lead.
Minoru Saito's Shuten-dohji II © Photo
Billy Black
Minoru Saito reported on his two years at sea: "I'm fine, today's my celebrate day that it has passed just 2 years since I left Japan, and sailed about 50,000 nautical miles all singlehanded, same as in '94-'95. That is a long distance and many days, but this time so much tired than previous race. And today No 5. batten pocket broken and batten out, after that cutting off about 1 ft. Boat drifting about 4 hrs, no good day for me."
© Photo Richard Konkolski
| Place | Skipper | Boat | Latitude | Longitude | Dist. to go | Speed | Dist. to first | Time |
| 1 | Soldini | Fila | 16 34N | 058 04W | 1522 | 10.7 | 0 | 2140 |
| 2 | Thiercelin | Somewhere | 11 04N | 052 51W | 1971 | 12.5 | 448.1 | 2140 |
| Place | Skipper | Boat | Latitude | Longitude | Dist. to go | Speed | Dist. to first | Time |
| 1 | Garside | Magellan Alpha | 05 19N | 047 13W | 2451 | 10.4 | 0 | 2144 |
| 2 | Mouligne | Cray Valley | 03 33N | 044 02W | 2660 | 10.2 | 209 | 2144 |
| 3 | Yazykov | Wind of Change | 02 13N | 038 04W | 2973 | 2.7 | 522.2 | 2144 |
| 4 | Petersen | No Barriers | 03 57S | 035 42W | 3331 | 8.5 | 880.4 | 2144 |
| 5 | Saito | Shuten-dohji II | 04 30S | 034 55W | 3388 | 8.7 | 923.5 | 2144 |
| 6 | Hunter | Paladin II | 06 18S | 034 01W | 3503 | 6.7 | 1052.1 | 2144 |
| 7 | Van Liew | Balance Bar | 14 21S | 034 43w | 4028 | 8.8 | 1577.4 | 2144 |
Copyright © Richard Konkolski
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