Day 11, Tuesday December 15, 1998

Most of the competitors passed the first waypoint. Originally the race rules required them to sail north of Heard Island, but the competitors themselves set a new, safer point seven degrees (about 420 nautical miles) more to the north and about 120 miles more to the East. All the competitors who passed the self-imposed point sailed due east and after about half day of hard sailing all of them also automatically passed the official race point north of the Heard Island.

© Photo Richard Konkolski

There was another point to pass. Everybody would sail north of 46 degrees South and anywhere between 105 and 120 degrees East longitude. Originally, this "floating" but mandatory waypoint would have added some tactical planning to each competitor's course. However, having already sailed at 46 latitude at the longitude of Kuergelen Islands, there was no reason for them to go more than 100 miles south and the track would be more direct for everybody.

Isabelle was at the front, leading with over 30 miles over Thiercelin and about 45 miles over third placed Soldini. Golding was about 100 miles behind her and Hall almost 800 miles. The last Class I boat, with Russian sailor Konioukhov, was over 2,600 miles back leaving Cape Town a week behind the rest of the fleet. He was sailing in northerly direction, but he explained the reason why: "Some people are trying to presume that I am going wrong way. It is not so. For the recent days I had a weak wind with 08-09 knots and South-East direction. I am desperately trying to get down to 45-50 degrees. But no luck for now. If I will tack now I will go 200 degrees, which is not really good."

Isabelle Autissier
Leading Isabelle had not so easy sailing as well. She wrote: "We really got knocked down this morning. The waves are starting to get a little vicious, running every which way, and one of them blindsided the boat while I was brewing a cup of tea. Result: mainsail and genoa hit the drink. No panic... Once the boat is lying on her side, nothing else happens. You have time to roller-furl the genoa, go get the backstay, shift the mainsail, and set off again... slowly. The main thing is that nothing breaks when you get knocked down. I think I came through this one all right. I hope the mainsail track and sail slides haven't been too damaged. Luckily, having a preventer on the boom softens the blow a bit. What else? Well, I put on dry clothes yesterday - a luxury that never lasts, but feels great. I figure I've changed clothes once a week. I'd sure like to see the sun again one of these days, but that doesn't seem to be part of the plan."

Garside's Magellan Alpha

Mike Garside was still maintaining the lead in Class II and had widened his lead over Mouligne to 58 miles. Both leading Class II boats were in front of Class I Josh Hall. Over 1,000 miles back behind Garside was Neal Petersen who emailed: "After a 183-mile, 24-hour run, the winds have gone light again and my progress has slowed down, frustratingly. Gales for my area were predicted, but have failed to materialize. I am going to drop south another 30 to 60 miles over the next few days and see if I can get some better winds, and hopefully not too much."

Minoru Saito who was over 100 miles behind Peterson had to gybe, heading 180-190 degrees. He was complaining about constantly shifting light wind.

© Photo Richard Konkolski

Positions:

Class 1

* Notice: Due to communication difficulties with Autissier, her position does not reflects actual standing.

Class 2

Copyright © Richard Konkolski
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