Taxi Clipper ......
07:40, 15 March 2003
by Colinsan

Bristol remain in the lead but there are some interesting developments behind her. The conditions have been variable throughout the fleet but Jersey certainly seem to have come out of it well by staying slightly more to seaward and have had a massive boost which has moved them up from 7th to second. This is an interesting twist as Bristol started to mall back when she went further offshore and into a foul current. Simon Rowel, the master of the understatement reports 'A pleasant surprise at the last radio schedule. However I guess what the sea giveth the sea can quite easily taketh away so the cat is staying firmly out of its bag.' (see below)

Sam Fuller and her crew in New York has made the other story by deciding not to play with the boys in the bay and have headed out to sea to cross the Kuro Shio Current. This may look a rash move but at present she is charging along and with the fickle wind condition in the bay it could certainly pay off. Such a move could mean victory or it could all go terrible wrong and they could take a hit - normally such a prediction results in them rejoining the fleet in the middle.

The weather has been overcast with patches of rain. Yesterday saw the boats drifting thinking they would never make it to Shanghai and then a good north easterly picked up. Unfortunately Rupert Parkhouse reports that their light weight spinnaker has blown and part went under the boat while the rest has wrapped itself round the inner forestay. It is unbelievable how well a flailing sail can secure itself to a shroud. In the last race Hong Kong, the eventual winner, had to remove their forestay. This time Rupert reports that the only way to clear the remains was by taking the inner forestay off. Notwithstanding this they are still leading the main pack of five, namely Cape Town, Hong Kong, Liverpool and London.

The skippers and crew will be learning new skills on this race as they plot the boats positions on Admiralty paper charts. Everyone in the fleet has got so used to using the ARCS electronic charts produced by the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office so that this will come as a bit of a shock. In many of the boats the sacred chart table is now more correctly known as the computer desk and paper charts have a secondary role. All that changes around the Japanese coast as this area is not covered in the licensing agreement and so it is back to paper - this is a very good discipline and makes everyone appreciate the good and bad points of both systems.

This will be my last full report from the Race Office in Yokohama as we get ready to move to Shanghai tomorrow and set up there. The Japanese Race Staff continue to take an active interest in all the boats and they see the race as a fleet of racing yachts full of their friends - they are absolutely right!

Note: I am as baffled about the reference to this cat as probably all the readers are. What good is the cat if it is in a bag? If it is out we all know about it because he has told us and this is quite contrary to the normal use of this phrase. Why have they got a cat onboard anyway when it is not on the crew list? I just hope he is not talking about a Cat'o nine tails - these are strickly against the rules...

Source: Clipper 2002/2003 Round The World Race Official Site