Day 40, Wednesday May 19, 1999

Breaker.jpg (14426 bytes)
© Photo Richard Konkolski

The light wind held the remaining fleet back at sea. The nearest boat was almost 500 miles from Charleston. Under the current weather it would take couple of days before the next boat would come close to the finish line. All boats hardly reached 5 knots of speed.

Fedor Konioukhov was sailing with great difficulty just a few miles in front of the last boat of the fleet, Paladin II. Konioukhov reported broken backstay. He had to lower all sails and dive under the boat for six hours. He fastened the backstay by ropes to the daggerboard at the stern, which was now entangled in ropes. He still has over 900 miles to go.

Robin Davie reported light conditions as well: "Another day of light winds and calms, - it could be a slow boat to China, and it certainly feels like a Chinese steam laundry around here at the moment. A lot of buckets of cooler seawater have been tipped over me today.

Last nights calm lasted nearly 6 hours. 6 hours of oily calm sea with every star in the sky glinting on the water."

 Handles.jpg (18332 bytes)
© Photo Richard Konkolski

Positions:

Class 1

Place Skipper Boat Latitude Longitude Dist. to go Speed Dist. to first Time
1 Soldini Fila Charleston 0 0 0 0 0
2 Thiercelin Somewhere Charleston 0 0 0 0 0

Class 2

Place Skipper Boat Latitude Longitude Dist. to go Speed Dist. to first Time
1 Garside Magellan Alpha Charleston 0 0 0 0 0
2 Mouligne Cray Valley Charleston 0 0 0 0 0
3 Yazykov Wind of Change Charleston 0 0 0 0 0
4 Van Liew Balance Bar 28 01N 071 57W 493 6.5 493.4 2144
5 Petersen No Barriers 27 07N 071 39W 539 5.1 539.4 2144
6 Saito Shuten-dohji II 24 23N 068 30W 776 4.8 776 2144
7 Hunter Paladin II 23 09N 065 22W 954 2.9 953.5 2144

Copyright © Richard Konkolski
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