Day 52, Monday January 25, 1999

© Photo Richard Konkolski

The southwest Pacific has been lately active with tropical storms. When Minoru Saito and Neal Petersen approached Cape Reinga they have been halted by unfavorable gale force wind, which forced them tack to reach the finish line. Two days later both competitors were struggling to make any progress in light winds. By the end of the day Saito was 94 miles from the finish and Petersen had 98 miles to go. Actually, the light conditions favored Petersen, who was able to make some miles on Saito and his much heavier boat. Both sailors were doing slightly over 3 knots and it was hoped that they would finish by tomorrow.

Shuten-dohji II © Photo Billy Black

Robin Davie had finally rounded the Tasmania and became the latest victim of the light Tasman Sea winds that dominated there for the entire month of January. He reported: "Another 24 hours of calms, light winds, summer sunshine, and a beautiful sunset with the coast of southern Tasmania getting visibly closer as what winds there are conspire to draw SC ever nearer. Yesterday's light winds held most of the day but backed into the west and eventually southwest. The big asymmetric chute pulled us along nicely at 5 knots with the wind around the beam, though the level of apparent wind was so low that 'Otto', the monitor self-steering, had difficulty holding a straight course, so for much of the day I steered myself. A perfect day to be sat out on the cockpit coaming, tiller in hand with the Tasmanian hills becoming a coastline ahead as the afternoon wore on."

The Sea © Photo Richard Konkolski

Positions:

Class 1

Class 2

Copyright © Richard Konkolski
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