By Brian Hancock
The outlaws on Outlaw remind me of my in-laws. Always cutting it close. Actually I loved all my in-laws. There have been a few I have to admit. But here is the situation as of the last Yellow Tracker update. Outlaw is leading L’Esprit d’équipe by 10 miles on distance to finish, however L’Esprit d’équipe have a fairly decent tail wind, and, well, Outlaw doesn’t. If I was a betting man, which I am not, I would put all my money on the French boat skippered by Lionel Regnier, and in fact if I could borrow money I would also bet on Neptune and Triana beating them into Cape Town. Behind them it’s all still up for grabs. I see Sterna doing a magnificent 1.2 knots; way to go if you want to go slow. Galiana WithSecure, with my mate Tapio Lehtinen as skipper is doing better at 5.6 knots, but as I have said before the race course is littered with potholes.
The thing about sailboat racing, especially one that circumnavigates the planet, especially a retro one that does not have great weather forecasting, is that it’s hard to tell if you will have the wind up the chuff or wind on the nose. Yes I know those are technical terms, but here we are. Up the chuff means from behind and on the nose, well you can work that out for yourself.
I can tell you that there might be some beer spilled Cape Town soon, or champagne if you like that stuff (I don’t) or some cream soda if you are staying away from the alcohol, but that would be a rare breed of sailors.
I have to go now. The cat wants his breakfast and my wife wants her coffee. Good days ahead for all the boats in the McIntyre Ocean Globe Race.
