DAY 9 - Club Med Takes the Lead
News - Monday, 01/08/2001, 4:48 AM GMT

Position	01/08/2001 4:48 AM GMT
1st	Club Med (As of 10 PM heading south passing the Cape Verde islands, avg speed 20.9 knots)
2nd	Team Adventure (99 nm for leader. Chasing Club Med south, avg speed 22.9 knots)
3rd	Innovation Explorer 112 nm from the leader. Heading west, avg speed 19.9 knots)
4th	PlayStation 559 nm from the leader. Heading west, avg speed 18.2 knots)
5th	Warta Polpharma (822 nm from leader. Good progress, heading south, avg speed 13.6 knots)
6th	Team Legato (1630 nm from the leader. Has now left Gibraltar, avg speed 2.2 knots)

Club Med has seized the lead and is the most to the east, Team Adventure, 30 miles to the west, has made up lost ground, she took a gamble and cut through the Canaries, braving risk of puffy wind. Innovation Explorer, having crossed the fleet from east to west, is now 110 miles to the west of Club Med. The three Ollier cats are sailing comfortably under gennaker.

PlayStation and Warta Polpharma have lost ground only because they have not arrived in the Trade Winds as yet, but will catch up soon. PlayStation has driven way past Warta Polpharma. PlayStation experienced a broken mainsheet, It took five hours to rig up a replacement system.

Warta is really hugging the coastline, looking for shore lifts and avoiding the low coming in from the west. Warta Polpharma is not too be discounted, 'the tortiose and the hare' story may very well come through here.

Team Legato Left Gibraltar 3:30 PM GMT, they were to leave at 2:25 PM.

On board Club Med all seems to be going well with the only bit of damage so far being a chaffed sheet and a minor incident with a fish hitting a daggerboard.
« These fish knock against the hull with a thud, some of them land in the net but generally get away by going through the mesh, others land on the bridge striking the passage pretty regularly, it can really hurt and it sure doesn't smell too good!», says Alexis.

Weather
Wind is coming from the north east, between 15 and 20 knots, a clear night, full moon. It is a pleasant night to sail. A low over Africa is expected to considerably weaken the trade winds by Monday and so the front three are heading away from the African coast in a bid to make the most of the remaining wind and get into a good position to tackle the Doldrums.

The next navigational challenge on the mind of the leaders is to find the narrowest point to cross the Doldrums (tricky light airs band). Traditionally the most favoured crossing point has been between 25° and 30° longitude.

The Photographers
The Race photographers

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

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