DAY 39 - Team Adventure, Warta Polpharma Struggle Today
News - Wednesday, 02/07/2001, 6:42 AM GMT

Position	02/07/2001 6:42 AM GMT
1st	Club Med (9237 nm from finish. Sailing below the 54th parallel, avg speed 21.6 knots)
2nd	Innovation Explorer (679 nm from the leader. 5 degrees further north than Club Med, fastest cat today, avg speed 18.2 knots)
3rd	Team Adventure (4826 nm from leader. Way north (40 deg) but still slow, avg speed 11.9 knots)
4th	Warta Polpharma (5494 nm from the leader. Moved north to catch a low pressure system, avg speed 11.7 knots)
5th	Team Legato (6480 nm from the leader. Gained 200 miles on Warta Polpharma in 24 hours, approaching the Kerguelens, avg speed 18.4 knots)
6th	PlayStation DNF

Club Med is traversing the ridge of high pressure and lighter air poking down between the two low pressure systems. They've had to pull up from their dive to the south, the wind is even worse down with light winds, the best breeze being both ahead and behind them. Dalton's boat is moving quicker than the weather systems, and has outrun the low pressure that they were riding on. Last night the had light air, but are now moving at about 20 knots, in flat seas.

Dalton, showing his sense of humour: "We just broke another padeye, about five minutes ago. We haven't got many left now. The bolt fell off on Lowlife's [navigator Mike Quilter] head. Luckily it hit something soft".

Club Med informed the race headquarters that she had encountered an iceberg.

Innovation Explorer was the fastest cat today. Innovation Explorer is riding in the same low pressure system that Club Med has outrun, they have gained 40 miles on Club Med today.

Innovation Explorer had been bracing for the onset of a storm. "The biggest we've had since the start", predicted Skip Novak, fortunately it turned out to be not as bad as expected.

Caputo: "Early this morning, we were reduced to three reefs in the main, and we’ve been sailing with that for over 12 hours. We had some gusts of up to 59 knots".

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

Team Adventure, at the 18:00 GMT checkpoint has covered only 195 miles in 24 hours, as the low pressure has filled and they ran into the almost windless centre. They are 340 miles from this southern point of Australia.

Lewis: "We’ve had breeze on and off today. We’re expecting pretty good breezes the next couple of days until we get down to Tasmania and get some serious winds again".

Lewis: "We've had the laundry mat out on the cockpit for a while. Everybody dried out some gear. The deck hatches were open for a while to try and get the moist floors dried out a little". Lewis: "The top bunks have small opening hatches mounted in the hulls at mid-bunk. It is great at the dock for air but now they all leak. Just about everything is soaked, but thanks to some good fabric technology and Jack Wolfskin's fine sleeping bags and mattresses we will survive. Tonight we tried again to seal the ports up with goop and duct tape".

Warta-Polpharma continues to struggle round the high pressure that has been dogging them for days. But a low pressure system is building to their north-west (above), and they seem to have moved north to try to catch a ride. They have covered 331 miles in 24 hours at the 18:00 GMT checkpoint.

Team Legato has passed beneath Possession Island, in the Crozet archipelago, close enough to see it. They continue to charge east on the same low pressure system which is extending in longitude that has carried them right across the Indian Ocean. Having run 468 miles in 24 hours, they gained 200 miles on Warta Polpharma today - currently there is about 1000 miles between the two cats. They can expect a steady westerly flow for several more days.

At the moment, we're heading up towards the top end of the Kerguelens. We'll leave them south of us when we go round. We've got 370 [nautical] miles to go.

News of Team Philips
Team Philips - Were are the team members now?

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

Map images courtesy of Virtual Spectator, click here to go to The Race site for a free download of the software.

Club Med in blue Innovation Explorer is in green Warta Polpharma is yellow

Team Adventure is in orange Team Legato is in brick-red PlayStation is in orange-red

Map images courtesy of Virtual Spectator, click here to go to The Race site for a free download of the software.

Club Med in blue Innovation Explorer is in green Warta Polpharma is yellow

Team Adventure is in orange Team Legato is in brick-red PlayStation is in orange-red

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