Day 35, Friday January 8, 1998

DvaRacciLon.jpg (16522 bytes)
© Photo Richard Konkolski

The weather forecast predicted increasing winds for the whole Around Alone fleet during the next 12 to 24 hours. Very rough weather would be developing for Saito and Petersen. Konioukhov was close to a developing low, but he was to have squally SW winds of 20 to 35 knots.

Moredl8.jpg (25391 bytes) © Photo Richard Konkolski

Next boats to finish at Auckland should be all Class 2 competitors. Closest to the finish line was Garside. He had only 196 miles to cover, but nobody knew how the placing would change. Yazykov, recently in fourth place, cut down 58 miles from Garside's lead within just the last 24 hours. It looked like the next three boats of Class 2 would all finish the same day.

BBWindOfChangeBow.jpg (20204 bytes) © Photo Billy Black

The competitors were sailing quietly. Each was probably busy fighting for the best possible position. Only Neal Petersen let everyone know about himself. He wrote: "It is just after sunset as we beat into a northeasterly that is threatening to go to gale force later tonight. I hope that this will be the last gale in the Southern Ocean for now. Last night we had light airs, and drifted a lot. Now it looks like I am to get my brains bashed around a bit. I guess this is what I get for being down here. I have closed the gap a bit on Minoru. He is now 80 miles ahead, but with the winds freshening, I might lose ground again…."

BBNoBarriersBow.jpg (26929 bytes) Petersen's No Barriers © Photo Billy Black

Positions:

Class 1

Place

Skipper

Boat

Latitude

Longitude

Dist. to go

Speed

Dist. to first

Time

1

Soldini

Fila

Auckland

0

0

0

0

0

2

Thierceli

Somewhere

Auckland

0

0

0

0

0

3

Autissier

PRB

Auckland

0

0

0

0

0

4

Hall

Gartmore

Auckland

0

0

0

0

0

5

Konioukhov

Mod.Univ.Human.

46 51S

108 51E

3090

4.7

3089.9

2140

6

Golding

Team Group 4

Retired

Auckland

0

0

0

0

Class 2

Place

Skipper

Boat

Latitude

Longitude

Dist. to go

Speed

Dist. to first

Time

1

Mouligne

Cray Valley

Auckland

0

0

0

0

0

2

Garside

Magellan Alpha

34 19S

172 17E

196

4.1

195.7

2144

3

Van Liew

Balance Bar

34 25S

172 01E

207

6.4

207

2144

4

Yazykov

Wind of Change

35 17S

171 31E

251

7.9

251.1

2144

5

Saito

Shuten-dohji II

45 50S

133 40E

2068

6.4

2067.6

2144

6

Petersen

No Barriers

46 19S

131 58E

2142

6.8

2141.5

2144

7

Hunter

Paladin II

46 24S

123 38E

2486

6.2

2486.2

2144

8

Davie

South Carolina

50 07S

093 15E

3732

8

3732.2

2144

9

Stricker

Rapscallion III

Retired

0

0

0

0

0

Copyright © Richard Konkolski
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