DAY 12 - King Neptune Aboard?
News - Thursday, 01/11/2001, 4:41 AM GMT

Position	01/11/2001 4:41 AM GMT
1st	Club Med (2300GMT: Starting to pull away slightly, avg speed 16.2 knots)
2nd	Team Adventure (55 nm from the leader. has lost a little ground, avg speed 16.4 knots)
3rd	Innovation Explorer (208 nm from the leader. Has gained for the day, avg speed 12.7 knots)
4th	PlayStation (420 nm from the leader. Still making good gains, in the Doldrums. Trying to get east, avg speed 12.7 knots)
5th	Warta Polpharma (820 nm from leader. Has gained, the fastest today, avg speed 18.1 knots)
6th	Team Legato (2181 nm from the leader. Slow progress south, has lost ground, avg speed 10 knots)

The tension on Club Med and Team Adventure must be intense, they have been so close for so long, keeping the pressure up every day.

Both boats crossed the equator today on port tack, then veered west, to avoid the Doldrums as it has moved south with the leaders. The goal is to reach the south-easterly trade winds first. The beat through the St. Helene high-pressure system will not be as bad as initially projected, it is virtually non-existent.

Innovation Explorer is well positioned, more to the west.

PlayStation(in red) tracks south, gaining ground before reaching the Doldrums. The Doldrums, however are not looking good for PlayStation, it has slowed down, and PlayStation has hit it further north therefore will remain longer in this frustrating weather condition then the Ollier ships.

The three French-built boats, displacing around 20 tons, seem at their best in light to moderate conditions. Comparatively, PlayStation displaces slightly more.

"Their (Ollier ships) philosophy was to reduce wetted surface area in light air, and get full sailing length when pressed up on one hull," says Pete Melvin. "The shape we chose is more evolutionary from the other cats we designed. The shape that we designed has low wetted surface at low speeds where transom is clear and knuckle is just immersed. The Ollier cats are designed with the knuckle out of water."

Weather
The weekend is looking stable. The South Atlantic High is still dominant, and the boats will be heading for the strip of northerly breeze down its western edge to sail down the coast of Brazil towards the southern ocean.

Tidbit
A crew member crossing the equator for the first time must be initiated by King Neptune. King Neptune 'comes aboard' to perform the ceremony (one of the crew members is delegated the huge responsibility to perform the ceremony).
7 members of Team Adventure were initiated, one of which is Fred Le Peutrec.
On Innovation Explorer Thierry Douillard will be initiated.

From the Cam Gram 10: 'King Neptune (aka Big Fred) visited us (complete with loin cloth, mustache and trident made from a broom and forks and duct tape) just after lunch in the windward cockpit assisted by his three accolades, Jacques, the enforcer, Jean-Yves, the accuser, and Micke, who meted out the punishments. We all had to kneel on the tramp (painful on the knees) and wait for our turn to be punished for crimes committed during the voyage. It was all very hilarious, but we were not allow to laugh in Neptune's presence or we got sprayed with some concoction from the enforcers squirt bottle.

Randy was accused of repeatedly excessive speeding on our racing catamaran and was punished by having to paint his nails red.

I was accused of illegal trade in electronic devices and was punished by having to clean the dishes without any electronic devices and turn off all electronic devices for 30 seconds.

Rob was accused of not putting enough water in the freeze dried meals and creating our own wind (Neptune is in charge of wind).

Fred B was accused of hiding French food goodies like wine and cheese and was punished by having to reveal where it was (he said he didn't know).

Yann was accused of sins of his father (who is a famous French sailor) who never has shown up in front of Neptune.

Jeffrey was accused of faking being a French sailor by speaking French, punished to speak only in German.

Philippe was the biggest case since he was accused of having been a car dealer (he was a BMW salesman) and Neptune hates cars and of marrying an Australian girl and moving his family to Australia without properly crossing the equator by sail to receive Neptune's consent and he had already been punished this morning by slipping and hurting his leg.

All of us received liberal coatings of dregs from the last meal thrown at us by Mikael after which we had to clean the boat and take saltwater spray showers. Everyone had a great laugh and the whole ceremony was done quite creatively by Big Fred, Jacques, Jean-Yves and Micke.'

From the NOW live tracker, www.now.com

Innovation Explorer is in turqoise Club Med in yellow Team Adventure is green

PlayStation is in red Warta is orange Team Legato is blue

Showing Warta Polpharma, she has gained on the Ollier boats, the fastest today with an average speed of 18.1 knots.

From the NOW live tracker, www.now.com

Showing Team Legato heading towards Palma, in the Canaries, following the track of Club Med. She is battling upwind into a south-westerly breeze of 25 to 30 knots from a low pressure system off Portugal, this has caused them to lose some ground. They are hoping to soon hit the tradewinds.

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