DAY 55 - Club Med sets two more Records, a Real Cat Fight in the Pacific, 'The Survivors' Gain Speed.
News - Friday, 02/23/2001, 4:21 PM GMT

Position	02/23/2001 4:21 PM GMT
1st	Club Med (2850 nm from finish. Slow progress home at 12 knots in south east trades, avg speed 13.0 knots)
2nd	Innovation Explorer (804 nm from the leader. Has gained on Club Med, unsure of best route north as they are in the doldrums and wind is dictating, avg speed 20.6 knots)
3rd	Warta Polpharma (6395 nm from the leader. Lost third place momentarily to Team Adventure but has reclaimed it back, avg speed 18.4 knots)
4th	Team Adventure (6412 nm from leader. Trailing the Poles, close battle for third place! avg speed 23.0 knots)
5th	Team Legato (8061 nm from the leader. Picked up speed out of NZ High, avg speed 14.6 knots)
6th	PlayStation DNF

Estimated arrival dates
Club Med - around March 3rd
Innovation Explorer - around March 5th
Team Adventure - between March 18th and March 24th
Team Legato and Warta-Polpharma afterwards.

Club Med, 'the Untouchables' - pick up two new records

1. Cape Horn to the Equator: more than a day and seven hours quicker than Sport Elec during her successful Jules Verne Trophy attempt;
2. Equator to Equator: 42 days and 11 hours - that's five days quicker than Sport Elec.

The second is more significant, because it is the best comparison between that Jules Verne record and Club Med's trip.

Dalton: "It cost us 200 miles but I think we are through (the Doldrums). The sky isn't clear yet so I am still suspicious but the wind is steady from the north-east which is what we would expect. We picked our spot well. I think the Doldrums buckled when we got there. It is like the thing dipped in the middle and the apex of the dip was about where we crossed the Equator. It was incredible, as we saw zero zero zero on the GPS the Doldrums started and the wind shut off. We are one and a half degrees of latitude further north now, that is to say 90 miles, and I'm pretty sure we are out the other side. Everybody worked through the night to keep the boat going. We had the Code Zero up for a while, we manoeuvred a lot. I would say it was one of the easiest crossings for me. Because we worked so hard there was no chance for any of the crew to enjoy the rain squall and take what would have been the first shower since the Cook Straits."

"So now we have a three day upwind slog. We have to climb up through the trades and then hopefully hook into this depression that is hanging around to the west of Portugal. That should give us plenty of pace towards Gibraltar."

The food, or lack of it, that was worrying Dalton a couple of days ago is increasingly an issue. "It's my fault; I underestimated the consumption of the crew." said Dalton, he went on, "We have enough to ensure all meals as far as Marseille. However we are short of all the little energetic "extras" like dried fruit and protein cereal bars that the boys adore after a sudden dose of effort. We have noticed significant weight loss in some of us, around eight to ten kilos!" That's an awful lot of weight to lose in less than two months, from a crew that weren't exactly overweight in the first place. It will be draining their energy and concentration through this last section. It makes mistakes a little more possible ...

Club Med is sailing upwind in the north-east trade winds, about 750 miles above the equator and Innovation Explorer is reaching in the south-east trades. The point where the two trade wind zones meet is the Doldrums. They are about 300 miles below the equator.

Innovation Explorer - 'The Hunters'
They were able to gain over 200 miles yesterday and are making good speed albeit not in the right direction, and they still have to tackle the Doldrums themselves, then handle the three days or so upwind in the trades, no easy feat with their shortened daggerboard.

Novak: "We have had generally light to moderate conditions since entering the southeast trades, but they are not that stable. Light patches and squalls are in equal proportions to steady breeze on a very flat ocean. The problem of where to cross the doldrums dominates the thinking and, contrary to what I might have said yesterday, the easterly option is being contemplated. This morning the guys did some more work on the reacher".

Jérôme Teigné felt inspired to comment on the artistic, almost avant-garde quality of the patched reacher: "I’m sure everyone is dying to see what it looks like, our patchwork reacher would fetch a good price as a work of modern art!"

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 and Warta Polpharma: The race is on!
Both boats have been neck and neck since leaving Wellington's harbor a few days ago, they are now below 50S, the wind is going from 30 to 50 or even 60 knots from the west, north-west, and there is constant sail changing. It will be tough for the short-handed Team Adventure to maintain their pace. Team Adventure captured third place from Warta-Polpharma between 2 and 3 AM GMT, but Warta took it back shortly afterwards.

A tropical depression is descending on them from the north, and a high pressure system building ahead of them to the east. Warta Polpharma has eased south a little and look in good shape to loop round the bottom of the high. Now they are dropping south hard, they may have hung on a little too long. They had a problem with their mainsheet traveler yesterday.

Team Adventure has turned south, as there is an area of either headwinds or no wind associated with the tropical depression moving right into Lewis' path. He's got to get south into the northerly breeze on the front of the southern low, and use it to slingshot round the bottom of the high.

Further south low pressure systems will keep rolling eastwards and the magic carpet of strong downwind conditions is unrolling ahead of them all the way to the Cape. Soon they will have to be keeping their eyes out for icebergs, as they dip further south and the temperature drops.

Those Fabulous Poles
We love having them in this race, they are such an enthusiastic team with their excitement coming through, the little maxi is sticking up for her rights with the bigger brothers. These are true sailors and are giving Team Adventure quite the competitive race.

Team Adventure, Entertainment Extreme
The beach cat crowd is watching intensely, as we consider this team 'some of our own'. Cam Lewis' is truly entertaining to read with his quips and imagination.

"Cam reporting in from the South Pacific. We are still heading for Bora Bora and should be there in a year or so. It just happens Marseille is on the way. Remember, this is about the long road."

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 Legato - 'the Survivor's'
Their 4 hour delay leaving Wellington was in fact for a starter motor that had to be delivered from Auckland. They are holding a quite conservative course to the north and have now gotten into some wind, gaining speed, finally out of the high pressure system over New Zealand. They will need to drop south to get into the Southern Ocean express.

Team Legato has received some bad press about the loss of all the crew. Especially about Rob Salvidge leaving for 'personal reasons'.

Bullimore has being stoick about the whole thing, good on him! "Rob's decision to leave the boat was for personal reasons which we respect and understand. The issues have been blown up out of all proportion and the crew and I have taken all that we have read in the press with a pinch of salt. Rob departed on the best of terms and with our good wishes, as I am sure he will confirm when he gets back to Blighty today. And when we get back to Bristol, I'm sure that he will be one of the first to greet us on the quay."

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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