1:15 AM Sun 6 Dec 2009 GMT
Crunch time for the skippers is fast approaching as they will soon need to decide when to start heading north east towards Geraldton. If they go too soon they risk running into no wind in the high pressure system further north. If they go too late they may end up sailing a lot of extra miles, a decision which could prove unnecessarily costly if the high pressure system were to move further north.
Turning to port and heading north east was something that Spirit of Australia was unable to do for a short while this morning. A problem which had been caused by two pieces of the steering system, the rudder stock and the steering quadrant, coming out of alignment.
'As soon as it was noticed, our engineering team sprang into action,' says skipper Brendan Hall. 'We stopped the boat dead in the water so they could re-align the two pieces. They have now been locked back together in such a way that should make it impossible for them to come out of alignment again.
'We're not sore about losing the miles,' he adds. 'That's just ocean racing. We'll get them back, don't you worry!'
Team Finland's kangaroo hunting has been relentless and the hour the Australian team took to re-align the steering system has enabled the Finnish entry to narrow the gap to just three nautical miles. Having made the decision to move south towards Spirit of Australia, the crew will be looking hard for any signs of the boat on the horizon.
'The sparring with Spirit of Australia over the last 24 hours has kept things exciting as we look to the position reports,' says Mark Cole, crew member on Team Finland. 'With each small gain keeping us motivated and the losses even more so. But, that's not to say we have forgotten the rest of the fleet and we have to keep one eye over our shoulder as it would be folly to discount Uniquely Singapore. I'm sure they will want to get one over on us after the way we sailed by them on the way to Cape Town.'
Team Finland is wise to be weary as Jim Dobie and his team on Uniquely Singapore continue to push hard to overtake the two boats ahead. 'The crew is working hard and spirits are up as we try and pick a course through the constantly shifting wind angle and strength,' says Jim. 'We are slowly increasing our lead on the fleet behind us and snapping at the heels of Spirit of Australia and Team Finland.'
Currently lying in fourth place, Jamaica Lightning Bolt has been enjoying the champagne sailing conditions experience by Spirit of Australia yesterday.
'It has been absolutely perfect sailing conditions with good winds, moderate sea state and bright sunshine,' says skipper Pete Stirling 'We are making a steady 10 to 12 knots of boat speed which is pretty much maximum hull speed for these boats. In fact the only way to go faster is to surf down the front of big following seas, but we don't have those conditions at the moment.'
California has also had a great night, reporting good boat speeds in calm seas. 'This morning the wind has returned from its holiday and is back with full force,' says skipper Pete Rollason. 'We are now positioned to the north of the fleet and hopefully over the next four to five days this should be to our benefit.'
Whilst the North American team has made some good progress, its Canadian neighbour, Cape Breton Island, has suffered from yet another patch of light winds. This despite the fact that crew member, Gerry Vandergrift, has developed a new weather display programme, designed to help the Canadian team avoid the wind holes they seem to be so good at finding.
'Gerry has spent some time developing a programme on the computer which, after inputting all the relevant data, displays information that should allow us to make more informed decisions about tactics,' explains Cape Breton Island's skipper, Jan Ridd. 'It was therefore to my amusement I witnessed Gerry's frustration as we sailed through the light patch last night and heard his anguished cries of, 'we are supposed to have 20 to 25 kts!' Welcome to my world! As skipper I am fully aware how annoying the weather can be when it doesn't do what the forecast says it should.'
Qingdao has now emerged from Stealth Mode and the team has not only made good ground on the boats ahead, they have also managed to move into fifth place.
'As we entered Stealth Mode our intention was to conceal the great ground we were making and the area of the ocean where we were finding such good wind,' explains skipper Chris Stanmore-Major. 'It is amusing then that cloaked, so many miles from land with only the birds and the waves to watch our passing, hidden even from watching loved ones at home, we should notice something new on our horizon. Sail Ho! And suddenly there is Edinburgh Inspiring Capital with every inch of canvas set, arching across the ocean heading south east in search of yet more breeze. A keen reminder of just how close this race is.'
Qingdao wasn't the first team Edinburgh Inspiring Capital has come across in the past 24 hours and skipper Matt Pike was a surprised as the Chinese team's skipper to have such close encounters two weeks into Leg 3.
'It was dawn when we saw Jamaica Lightning Bolt heading north of us and only a few hours later we crossed paths with Qingdao.' says Matt. 'After two thousand nautical miles of ocean racing you find yourself passing within three nautical miles of another yacht - both heading in wildly different directions!'
With little chance of spotting another Clipper 68 until they enter the marina in Geraldton, Piers Dudin and his team on board Hull & Humber are fully focused on arriving before Christmas Day.
'The systems are pretty stalled out at the moment so catching up isn't proving too much of a problem,' says Hull & Humber's skipper, Piers Dudin. 'We're setting up for a kite hoist now but by all accounts we'll be switching to a poled out headsail before the day is out. We are tightly monitoring our progress to make sure we make Geraldton by Christmas. Currently we're 200 miles behind schedule but should be making up the time as we go.'
Positions at 1200 UTC, Saturday 5 December
(*DTF = Distance to Finish, *DTL = Distance to Leader)
Boat DTF* DTL*
Spirit of Australia 2131nm 0nm
Team Finland 2134nm 3nm
Uniquely Singapore 2159nm 28nm
Jamaica Lightning Bolt 2225nm 93nm
Qingdao 2235nm 103nm
Edinburgh Inspiring Capital 2241nm 109nm
Cape Breton Island 2243nm 112nm
California 2340nm 209nm
Cork 3056nm 925nm
Hull & Humber 4059nm 1928nm
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