DAY 56 - Innovation Explorer Gains on Club Med. A Real cat Fight in the Pacific. 'The Survivors' Gain Speed in the Westerlies.
News - Saturday, 02/24/2001, 11:03 PM GMT

Position	02/24/2001 11:03 PM GMT
1st	Club Med (2566 nm from finish. Favorable forecast to the Mediterranean, avg speed 13.5 knots)
2nd	Innovation Explorer (651 nm from the leader. Has gained on Club Med, crossed the equator, new tactics further west to break through doldrums, avg speed 16.8 knots)
3rd	Team Adventure (6252 nm from leader. Deuling it out on the way to Cape Horn, avg speed 16.1 knots)
4th	Warta Polpharma (6264 nm from the leader. Deuling it out on the way to Cape Horn, avg speed 13.8 knots)
5th	Team Legato (7966 nm from the leader. Picked up speed out of NZ High, heading south for the winds, avg speed 13.8 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' - A Hard Few Days
Dalton: "We have had a really slow trip up to here - two days. By tomorrow night, we get a ridge line which comes down and we’ll try to climb into this low pressure and start shooting straight at Gibraltar. It should be pretty good scenario for us, considering how much ground we have lost. It has been quite a hard few days. It’s been quite hard on me - I feel a bit tired, I suppose."

Innovation Explorer - 'The Hunters'
They have just crossed the Equator, and now must face the difficult upwind beat for 2 or 3 days in the north-east trade winds, a sufferance with their shortened daggerboard. They are continuing to gain on Club Med, it is now down to 650 miles. The two leaders are moving in the same weather pattern, and the gap will stabilise until Grant picks up the benefits of the initial effects of the low they have been eyeing since the Equator.

Yves Loday: "And it's not over yet, the wind dropped this morning as if it was already the Doldrums, and then it picked up again blowing 20 knots!"

Skip Novak: "The other good news, is that the disturbed south-west regime coveted by Grant Dalton could still be active for us."

Caputo: "During Friday afternoon, a big school of dolphins was seen jumping out of the water for a short time. Otherwise, it is the flying fish crashing against the hulls, and sometimes a few jelly fish."

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

A real cat fight!
Team Adventure and Warta Polpharma are in raging seas and the wind is blasting in gusts up to 50 knots, an exercise in depower and boat control. They are both shifting away from the strongest part of the low and are climbing north-west towards the southern border of the high that is barring the Pacific. Third position has been swapped almost hourly between the two challengers.

Those Fabulous Poles - took third place back momentarily
Last night Warta dove south, crossing in front of Team Adventure who for their part chose to negotiate a tricky ridge via the north. On finding a route closer to the great circle, Warta momentarily retook third place.

They are navigating well. Every mile takes them closer to Cape Horn. The low they've been riding for several days is curving round under the effect of the high pressure centred to their north-east.

Roman Paszke: "Yesterday at about 3.00 pm we were only 17 miles apart, four hours later, three miles, all night we sailed at no more than two or three miles from the American. We received an e-mail from Cam Lewis suggesting we meet up. It would be nice, out here in the middle of the South Pacific between Wellington and Cape Horn."

Team Adventure, Entertainment Extreme
Cam offered to swap some food supplies. What they really wanted was some delicious goulash with the compliments of the chefs in Kielce, a town in Poland well-known for its excellent ‘montagnard’ cuisine.

At 11 PM Team Adventure takes back third place from Warta Polpharma - for now!
They have chosen a more northerly route on the southern edge of an anticyclone that is generating a north-westerly flow probably more manageable for the big catamaran, less direct however less harsh.

Lewis: "We jibed onto port over 30 hours ago and the wind has slowly been building. It has gone through a wide arc all the way to the north and northeast and is now back again into the northwest. Sails have slowly been reduced and we are now down to three reefs in the main and no headsail. The forecast is bleak. We will have more of this, with 30, 40 and maybe even 50 knots of wind for a few days, perhaps longer. Cape Horn lies ahead and it looks like it will live up to its reputation as a hard place to pass by unscathed."

"A constant vigil is being kept on deck looking out for bergs while below the navigators are watching the radar for the telltale blip."

"Duty will soon call and I will get into my one-piece drysuit, zip up, don some waterproof gloves, add a hat and goggles or wear a helmet and visor, and go up top to pilot this flying machine through the washing machine."

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'
Team Legato is feeling the effects of the 20 knot westerlies circulating to her south.

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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