By Brian Hancock
Sterna has done an about face. They are heading back to dry land. They report water coming into the boat. They are on course for Port Elizabeth a couple of hundred miles north with an ETA of late Monday. The thing about boats is that they need to be on the water, not having water in them. Sterna will try and see if they can fix the problem without any outside assistance otherwise they will be disqualified, but if not they may have to be hauled out of the water. Water coming in is a bit more that spit and some duct tape can manage, although I might have sorted out some tricky situations with a bit of spit; and duct tape.
Ms Marie Tabarly on Pen Duick VI keeps legging out and has a good lead on the fleet with a nice southerly breeze keeping the on-watch awake and the off-watch asleep. Translated 9, well what can I say, they are leading in the Flyer Class as well as IRC. Not a huge surprise there. I heard, and this may have come from an outside source, that they have been adding anchovies to their pasta sauce and that is giving them the extra gas they need.
Maiden is cooking. L’Esprit d’équipe is searching for more wind. Triana, a Swan 53 skippered by Jean d’Arthuys and Evrika skippered by Dominique Dubois must be a stones throw away from each other. Just two miles separate them on a distance to go to the finish in Auckland according to the Yellow Brick tracker. Unfortunately they all have found a pothole in the road and will be looking around for some new fresh wind.
Neptune has a good south westerly breeze up the chuff and they must be having a decent Sunday waiting for their roast beef dinner and a good bottle of châteauneuf du pape while the outlaws on Outlaw are diving south to see if they can find a little slice of the right stuff to squirt them ahead. All in all it’s a good day to be a sailor in the Ocean Globe Race. It’s either that or raking leaves, or worse yet, my wife Sally’s Honey do list.
