 |
2:19 PM Sun 22 Mar 2009 GMT
In the latest 0620 GMT Sunday position poll (22/03), the two race leaders, Desafio Cabo de Hornos and Beluga Racer have passed the Falkland Islands obstruction and are reaching north-east with the Chilean duo of Felipe Cubillos and Jos? Mu?oz maintaining a 60 mile lead over Boris Herrmann and Felix Oehme during the past 24 hours.
As the dominant high pressure system north of the fleet tracks east, a new system is forming off the coast of Patagonia and will deliver an extremely complex scenario for the Portim?o Global Ocean Race fleet.
For Desafio Cabo de Hornos and Beluga Racer, the immediate prospect is increased north-westerly breeze today, then a dramatic wind shift to the south as a front passes through tonight.
Currently 60 miles north-west of the Falkland Islands, Jeremy Salvesen and David Thomson in third place on Team Mowgli tacked early this morning. This may have been partly to remain clear of the outlaying Jason Islands off West Falkland, but as the new system develops throughout today, they may well hook into stronger north and then north-westerly breeze and pick up pace rapidly on Monday morning.
For Michel Kleinjans, 30 miles south of the Falklands this morning and lining up to take Roaring Forty parallel to the east coast of the islands, it can only be hoped that the solo sailor avoids the trauma experienced onboard Desafio Cabo de Hornos as the Chilean Class 40 passed close inshore yesterday, collecting great clumps of weed and kelp around the keel and twin rudders
"Every 30 minutes we had to bring the boat head-to-wind and back the sails to remove the weed," reports Cubillos. "With the rudders, it's not so hard as we can raise them up, but we still had to do this about every ten minutes." As night fell, the breeze picked up to 30 knots with Desafio Cabo de Hornos flying along the coast at 13 knots. "We were heading for a place marked as Goose Green on the chart," continues the Chilean skipper. "I noticed quite a big cluster of lights off the bow so we activated the AIS [Automated Identification System] and our active echo so they could spot us."
With the Port Stanley fishing fleet heading for home directly off the bow, Cubillos and Mu?oz were on high alert. "We realized we had sailed straight into a fishing boat freeway with 19 of them, in a row, one after the other, only 500 metres in front of us."
As both the crew peered anxiously forward, the situation suddenly escalated as Desafio Cabo de Hornos shuddered to a near-complete stop, instantaneously slowing from 13 knots to three knots. "We both thought we'd been caught up in a fishing net and we were sitting there, dead in the water with the wind blowing 30 knots and 19 boats heading directly at us! 'Houston, we have a problem!'."
Struggling to get the yacht sailing backwards from a standstill and remove kelp from the keel, further problems arose: "As soon as we did manage to free the keel from weed, the kelp would then float aft, wrap round the rudders, break the fuse and flip them up, leaving us with no steerage..in 30 knots!"
However, Cubillos and Mu?oz succeeded: "We did it and got away from the islands as fast as possible," confirms Cubillos. "Both Jos? and I now have a master's degree, or possibly even a doctorate, in sailing a boat backwards.
I'd also be interested to know what the fishing boat captains thought we were up to, watching our navigation lights going backwards and forwards all over the place."
With the Falklands in their wake, the Chilean race leaders can relax, slightly. "We're now sailing without kelp, in strong north-westerly breeze and a very lumpy sea," says Cubillos. "It's hard sailing, but after last night, every night from now on is going to be sweet music for us!"
by Olivier Dewar
|
|
Mount Wellington, TAS
Kitesurfing - Twintips
Stand Up Paddle - Wave & Cruising Boards
Windsurfing - Boards