Day 16, Sunday December 20

© Photo Richard Konkolski

Wild weather was developing for the entire fleet. First the last two boats could be hit by winds over 50 knots strong and later the rest of fleet would experience very high winds and big seas.

Thiercelin's Somewhere © Photo Marek Slodownik
Soldini had extended his lead over Thiercelin to 101 miles. Thiercelin was happy to pass the longitude of Cape Leeuwin, the beginning of Australia. He covered 4,400 miles in 14 days averaging 320 miles a day. But despite the fact that Thiercelin was averaging almost 17 knots at that time, he was overtaken by Golding who took the second position. Isabelle was still dropping behind, currently 365 miles behind Soldini.

Magelan Alpha © Photo Billy Black
In Class II Mouligne widened his lead on Garside to 101 miles. Of course Mike was not happy: "It's a bright blue day but my mood is black. Why, oh why are Alphie and I sailing so badly? I can't make up my mind who or what is to blame. The sea is still a mess but at least we have wind so we ought to be rocketing along. Instead, every six hours, JP pulls ahead by another ten miles. Still, we passed the halfway mark last night and that means it's all down hill from here. It's time Alphie and I pulled our socks up and started clawing our way back to the front."

Robin Davie's South Carolina © Photo Billy Black
Two-time solo circumnavigator Robin Davie finally left Cape Town. He sent his first email from the Indian Ocean: "Well, it's sure good to be back at sea. The South African NSRI lifeboat towed me out of Cape Town yesterday late afternoon, casting off my tow as we reached the breakwater, so that with mainsail and genoa unfurled. I drifted across the line at the breakwater with light westerly airs at about 1630Z, which is about 1830 local time in the evening. I had hoped to be back at sea by last Thursday evening, but the list of jobs to be done, stores and stuff to be purchased, seemed to get greater rather than less. Just packing and stowing everything onboard took over a day. All the essentials were taken care of - but there are still a lot of loose ends to finish off out here now that we are underway. The first 24 hours have not been without their little incidents, starting with the wind and water speed instruments, which are not functioning at all correctly - hopefully we can fix, otherwise I can live without them. Then the big blow was losing the Windex this morning. Again we can live without it. The final blow again at the masthead was the loss of the masthead navigation light. I was down below in the cabin this afternoon when there was a sound-shattering loud explosion, as though a loaded shotgun had gone off in close proximity… Looking around and coming on deck my immediate thoughts were broken boom or mast - or possibly rudder or keel - it was so loud and sudden - but South Carolina was sailing along normally. I could see bits of plastic lying on deck - and looking at the masthead I could see the navigation light base swinging in the wind on the end of its electric cable. I guess it got shaken loose from its bolts, and smashed into the side of the mast, with the bulbs imploding with a loud crack.... "

© Photo Richard Konkolski

Positions:

Class 1

Class 2

Copyright © Richard Konkolski
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