DAY 47 - Team Adventure Undergoing Repairs in Wellington, Warta to Make a Quick Stop for Inmarsat B Satellite Repairs, There will be a Tight Race in the Second Half of the Fleet
News - Thursday, 02/15/2001, 3:09 PM GMT

Position	02/15/2001 3:09 PM GMT
1st	Club Med (5285 nm from finish. Slow upwind progress in the high pressure and current, avg speed 10.9 knots)
2nd	Innovation Explorer (944 nm from the leader. Also slowing in the current, avg speed 12.3 knots)
3rd	Team Adventure (6032 nm from leader. Arrived in Wellington just before noon GMT, for 60-hour stop, work has already started, avg speed 0.0 knots)
4th	Warta Polpharma (6445 nm from the leader. Stopping in Wellington, slowed up in light winds of Tasman Sea, avg speed 11.5 knots)
5th	Team Legato (7097 nm from the leader. Gained ground on Warta with deep south approach but will lose time going north, avg speed 17.0 knots)
6th	PlayStation DNF

Club Med slowed up fast once they hit the St. Helena's High and the opposing current. The Falklands current flows north up the Argentinian coast to meet the Brazil current coming south from Recife - all you need for a rough sea. They are expectinmg three days of upwind in bad seas. Some consolance though, warm conditions.

Nilson: "It looks like we are on the top of a low, with a high pressure to the west of us, and the wind is going to go to the south."

Dalton: "We are on port tack heading out to the north-east. We'll be headed and we'll eventually tack onto starboard and sail upwind towards the Equator and be slowly lifted as we go."

Innovation Explorer has taken a more easterly route, trying to go around the St. Helena High, but unfortunately they have experienced even more current, Peyron's boat has reported a much faster current speed of 21 knots compared to Club Med's 11.

Innovation Explorer has just gotten wind, and is surfing in 25 knots of wind, heading north-east.

Skip Novak braved the sea water of 8 degrees, going out onto the tramp to take a shower. No-one else in the team was brave enough, but were suitably impressed.

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 finally arrived in Wellington just before noon GMT driven by 30/35 knot winds, after struggling in light air for 3 days in the Tasman sea. Repairs have started on the cross beam delamination. The repair team are now estimating the work could take up to 90 hours. Almost as soon as she touched Lambton Quay in Wellington, Team Adventure was handed over to the four boat builders who have been waiting for her since Tuesday.

The four men already on hand will work through the night by torchlight (it’s one o’clock in the morning in Wellington) to assess the extent of the damage. First they slid a pontoon under the beam, they must dry the damaged part of the main beam to assess the extent of the problems and the repairs to be carried out.

Prior to them arriving in Wellington, Larry Rosenfeld: "We are beginning the turn into Cook Strait and the boat speed has picked up to 14 knots. The water is flat and we can make good time. We still have 130 miles to go and it is difficult to forecast our exact arrival time because a few knots difference in wind speed has a major effect on our boat speed."

Warta Polpharma is now in the high, and has seen a drop in speed, but is not suffering as much as Team Adventure did. Warta Polpharma is crossing the south-west tip of New Zealand and will also be stopping in Wellington, but only for 2 hours, just enough time to take a look at the Inmarsat B Satellite system. There will be no penalty, because the stop has been requested by the race committee (Warta Polpharma does not need to stop to finish the race).

In consultation with The Race committee, the boat will be granted a time allowance based amongst other things on the course diversion, the weather conditions and the time spent at the dockside. The stop in Wellington will add to the time allowance of seven hours they received when they stopped in Gibraltar.

Team Legato, still on the same low pressure system, has had another 400 plus days, again, best day of the fleet. Thay are now within about 700 miles of the Poles and this number is dropping steadily. If Team Adventure leaves precisely on the 60 hour time limit, it is estimated that they will be sailing with Team Legato as they sail away.

Based on 60 hours of repairs, this is likely to put Team Adventure, Warta Polpharma and maybe Team Legato if they keep gaining, into a tight race in the second half of the fleet, with Team Adventure bringing up the rear. The drama builds!

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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