© Photo Richard Konkolski
© Photo Richard Konkolski
By the end of the day Giovanni Soldini was only 80 miles from the finish line fighting through a line of thunderstorms. It was expected, that Giovanni would cut down the Around Alone race record of 120 days, 22 hours, 36 minutes and 35 seconds. In the meantime Marc Thiercelin could shake off the light winds and get very good conditions for his finishing.
Michael Garside
In the Class II fight, Mouligne lost more miles to Garside during the last 24 hours. Garside moved west and found a narrow band of wind, extending his lead over JP to 280 miles. Despite 911 miles left to Mouligne to finish the race, he was getting ready for another week at sea. He reported: "I am moving extremely slowly toward Charleston and at that speed I am looking at another week at sea! A big high-pressure system is moving in next, and will act as a giant cushion between us and the finish line. Sometimes the wind gets to about 12- to 14-knots and the speed jumps to 9 knots but most of the time six- or seven-knots is all we get and we are creeping along downwind at 4 knots... [I have] a very simple strategy: how the hell can I get to Charleston before Mike does?"
Victor Yazykov © Photo Billy Black 
In fourth place, Viktor Yazykov today was 1,313 miles from the finish. He was sailing without self-steering gear and spending 18 to 20 hours a day at the tiller. He was very creative in developing methods to keep his boat moving. For the duration of his short cooking time or navigation, he was attaching a shock chord back from the tiller to one side and some rope through a turning block into the cabin. That way he could somehow steer from inside, but during that time he was always loosing speed and miles. Victor was already feeling tired, but still not complaining. Unfortunately he had a high chance of getting caught in a high pressure system very soon as he hasn’t moved further to west some days ago. He could be stuck in very light conditions for up to three days.
Neal Petersen, Minoru Saito and Neil Hunter, who were sailing behind Yazykov, still had time to change course further west through the Caribbean and avoid the large light wind area, but this would add about 300 miles to their course.
© Photo Richard Konkolski
| Place | Skipper | Boat | Latitude | Longitude | Dist. to go | Speed | Dist. to first | Time |
| 1 | Soldini | Fila | 31 26N | 079 08W | 80 | 14.8 | 0 | 2140 |
| 2 | Thiercelin | Somewhere | 28 35N | 074 20W | 373 | 7.7 | 293 | 2140 |
| Place | Skipper | Boat | Latitude | Longitude | Dist. to go | Speed | Dist. to first | Time |
| 1 | Garside | Magellan Alpha | 23 55N | 073 06W | 631 | 10.6 | 0 | 2144 |
| 2 | Mouligne | Cray Valley | 21 48N | 067 48W | 911 | 12 | 280.1 | 2144 |
| 3 | Yazykov | Wind of Change | 19 59N | 059 47W | 1313 | 6.3 | 682 | 2144 |
| 4 | Petersen | No Barriers | 10 48N | 051 06W | 2055 | 8.2 | 1423.8 | 2144 |
| 5 | Saito | Shuten-dohji II | 09 24N | 050 02W | 2159 | 7.4 | 1572.3 | 2144 |
| 6 | Hunte | Paladin II | 08 21N | 045 53W | 2380 | 5.1 | 1689.6 | 2144 |
| 7 | Van Liewr | Balance Bar | 06 29N | 047 18W | 2397 | 10 | 1765.5 | 2144 |
Copyright © Richard Konkolski
Return back to Fourth Leg
Return back to Third Leg
Return back to Second Leg
Return back to First Leg
Return back to Sailing Round the World Races
Return back to Seven Oceans