HATFIELD IS HALF WAY
20th May 2003

Fine sunny weather has returned to Newport after two weeks of chilly, damp conditions, but the warm sunshine is having a hard time keeping the gloom out of the air. The Around Alone fleet is disbanding and moving on. Solidaires has left for France, Tommy Hilfiger Freedom America for New York. Bobst Group Armor lux is already half way across the Atlantic. In the next few days Pindar will leave for Europe under new management. The boat has been chartered to a French sailor for two years that will include another solo circumnavigation. Only the Tiscali crew remain hard at work getting the mast repaired and the boat ready for their trip across the pond to Italy.

Out on the water Derek Hatfield has now passed the halfway stage of Leg 5 and is making great progress towards Newport. "I have passed the halfway point and now have less than 2000 miles to go to the finish," he wrote. "For the past four days the trade winds have really helped us along." Unfortunately for Hatfield the fine sailing will not last all the way to Newport. He too will have to face the transitions zone between the trade winds of the Caribbean and the frontal systems that come off the eastern seaboard of the United States. On board Spirit of Canada Derek is already starting to feel change in the air. His log continued: "The trades are starting to fade now and will all but disappear by the time I reach the latitude of Antigua. After that I will have some light downwind conditions and then a series of low pressure systems that I will have to negotiate all the way up to Bermuda. After Bermuda, it's just a short hop across the Gulf Stream and into the finish line. I have done the race between Bermuda and Newport a number of times before so I feel at home in those waters."

It's probably not wise to speculate, but at the pace Derek is sailing he may finish in Newport as early as May 30, although if he runs into the same weather mess the other boats encountered in the Gulf Stream then he will get here in early June. A May 30 arrival will be a couple of hours slower than it took Tim Kent on Everest Horizontal and two days faster than Kojiro Shiraishi on Spirit of yukoh. As I said it's foolish to speculate, but it's also fun. Stay tuned.

For the latest position of Spirit of Canada go to the Positions page - for more frequent updates please take a look at Derek's website www.spiritofcanada.net

--- Brian Hancock great.circle@verizon.net

Source: Around Alone Official Site