© Photo Richard Konkolski
© Photo Richard Konkolski
By the end of the day J.P. Mouligne was only 230 miles from his finish. He averaged 4.5 knots in the last 24 hours but he did only 115 miles toward Punta. He was not happy about slow progress as he expressed in his message: "The last 2 days have been the most frustrating sailing I have had since the beginning of the race. The wind has come from every direction from 40 knots to 0. Within 2 hours I went from a full main and gennaker, to 3 reefs in the main and a partially rolled up staysail, then back to a full main etc., all day. Consequently my lead has be chopped again to 75 miles and if I do not get going soon, I will have nothing left by tomorrow night. The forecast calls for North, NorthEast wind so it's going to be upwind all the way. They will not catch me!"
During last 24 hours, second-place Mike Garside was able to cut 25 miles off Mouligne's lead, and trailed him by only 67 miles. Meanwhile Marc Thiercelin, was expected to receive a new aluminum spar in the Falkland Islands. Thiercelin told race operators that he hopes to rejoin the race on Sunday, 7 March. He also said: "We have so many examples that this race is never done until we cross the finish line. I think I have a pretty good chance to win this race, but I also think the race is not finished."
Petersen's No Barriers © Photo Billy Black
Almost 2,500 miles from finish, Neal Petersen emailed: "We are into the single digit numbers of longitude. Conditions are freshening up out here as I push SE towards the Horn. Another gale developing. What a pain. I have 3 reefs in main, but probably in the next few hours will drop it as the seas build. It will not be easy going downwind with a damaged headsail. Tomorrow we will be under 1,000 miles from the Horn. I look forward to that."
The last boat of the fleet, Paladin II with Neil Hunter was still 3,108 miles away from Punta.
© Photo Billy Black
Place |
Skipper |
Boat |
Latitude |
Longitude |
Dist. to go |
Speed |
Dist. to first |
Time |
1 |
Soldini |
Fila |
Punta |
del Este |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
Thiercelin |
Somewhere |
Falkland |
Islands |
1011 |
0 |
1011 |
1540 |
3 |
Autissier |
PRB |
Rescued |
by |
Soldini |
0 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
Hall |
Gartmore |
Retiring |
to |
Chatham Is. |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Place |
Skipper |
Boat |
Latitude |
Longitude |
Dist. to go |
Speed |
Dist. to first |
Time |
1 |
Mouligne |
Cray Valley |
38 41S |
056 05W |
230 |
7.6 |
0 |
2144 |
2 |
Garside |
Magellan Alpha |
3943S |
056 42W |
297 |
9.1 |
66.8 |
2144 |
3 |
Van Liew |
Balance Bar |
41 51S |
056 27W |
419 |
7.6 |
189 |
2144 |
4 |
Yazykov |
Wind of Change |
47 22S |
059 33W |
772 |
5.6 |
542 |
2144 |
5 |
Saito |
Shuten-dohji II |
53 53S |
095 04W |
2311 |
7.8 |
2080.8 |
2144 |
6 |
Petersen |
No Bariers |
49 44S |
097 03W |
2480 |
7.4 |
2249.6 |
2144 |
7 |
Hunter |
Paladin II |
47 12S |
113 18W |
3108 |
7 |
2878.2 |
2144 |
Copyright © Richard Konkolski
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