DAY 58 - Innovation Explorer Gaining Steadily on Club Med. Team Adventure Stretches Lead on Warta Polpharma
News - Monday, 02/26/2001, 5:50 AM GMT

Position	02/26/2001 5:50 AM GMT
1st	Club Med (2328 nm from finish. Patience till they catch winds, avg speed 7.8 knots)
2nd	Innovation Explorer (646 nm from the leader. On the northern edge of the Doldrums, further west than Club med, gaining ground, avg speed 13.5 knots)
3rd	Team Adventure (5933 nm from leader. Handling rough conditions better than the Poles, increasing lead, avg speed 19.5 knots)
4th	Warta Polpharma (6150 nm from the leader. Have put up an impressive fight, avg speed 12.9 knots)
5th	Team Legato (7954 nm from the leader. heading north, should be heading south, avg speed 8.1 knots)
6th	PlayStation DNF

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

Club Med, 'the Untouchables' - Sacrifice to the Wind Gods?
Dalton: "We are just going to keep ourselves between him and the finish line, mark him and cover his moves." Innovation Explorer had gained another 60 miles by 5 AM GMT today.

Franck Proffit: "We must remain focused right to the end, because a 600 or 700 mile lead is nothing, really, and there is still some tricky sailing ahead."

In a few hours, Club Med should break free of the light winds and start flying with eased sheets toward the Canaries and then Gibraltar.

Innovation Explorer - 'The Hunters': gaining on Club Med
Slowly but surely, Innovation Explorer is gnawing away mile after mile of Club Med's lead. Loïc Le Mignon: "We won’t head east because that would take us closer to where [the doldrums] are broader."

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

Water Ballet in the Furious Fifties
Team Adventure and Warta Polpharma are in raging seas with oversized waves and the wind is blasting from the south-west 40 to 50 knots. Team Adventure is 1474 miles away from Cape Horn (about 3 days) and Warta-Polpharma is 140 miles behind. Warta Polpharma is forced to sail more conservatively in these rough conditions, thus enabling Team Adventure to stretch their lead gradually.

Sandy Fesq, Race Committee member: "A region of light air coming up from the south is making them climb a little to the north. That direction takes them a little away from the direct route to Cape Horn."

A deep low is located south west of Cape Horn and seems to be lying in wait to greet the catamarans. They'll need to skirt it by heading toward the coast of Chile before swinging southward to lay Cape Horn.

Those Fabulous Poles - headboard problems
Warta is still having problems with the mainsail headboard.

Team Adventure, Entertainment Extreme - in third place

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 now heading north. They really should be heading south as quickly as possible to escape the high and to escape before a big blow predicted in 72 hours time, where they would be forced to beat into strong south, south-east winds.

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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