Sal's Ocean Globe Race Analysis: Hattie the cat is keeping a close eye on the fleet!
The boats taking part in the Ocean Globe Race have been as close to the “Middle of Nowhere” as it is possible to get.The Fleet has been close to Point Nemo, that is, the furthest place on earth from land. 1450 miles, to be exact.
It wouldn’t have felt particularly lonely for the boats as they have been mostly sailing in a flotilla with a spread of only about 300 miles across the main fleet.The tight pack will have been reassuring for them, in this, the most isolated place on earth. If anything had gone wrong, their best hope for help would be from a fellow competitor, as has been proved many times on similar races.Sailing has been steady over the last few days as they all sailed along under a High Pressure giving them easy miles in a North Westerly breeze.
It hasn’t been possible for anyone to make big gains as they were routed north of 2 waypoints for safety from ice. The lead boats, Pen Duick VI, Translated9 and Maiden have altered course now to head for the 3rd and final waypoint which is allowing them to get further South to 53 Degrees. After that they have to continue south to round Cape Horn at 56 degrees South.There is a change in the weather and the leaders look to be getting the benefit. They are sailing over a Low now giving them South Westerly breeze. It will be considerably colder with the breeze coming from the Antarctic.
Conditions are more like you would expect the Southern Ocean with big seas and great , fast sailing.The poor tail enders aren’t so lucky as the High that has been lurking about for the last week has joined forces with another High to the South making one enormous hole of light airs.
It looks set to spread the fleet out a lot over the next few days.The Tracker is going to get much more interesting, and hopefully we will see some good pictures coming from the boats.They would be hard pushed to do better than the iconic photo by Rick Tomlinson on board Drum of the late, great, Magnus Olsson with his arms raised and his trademark enormous smile. It pretty much sums up Sothern Ocean Sailing at its best! -Sal
- Sally (Sal) Hunter was part of the original Maiden crew to sail around the world in the 89/90 Whitbread Race. Sal has joined the Maiden Shore Team for the duration of the Ocean Globe Race, tracking Maiden and keeping us updated with sailing analysis updates!
