Polly Pratt breaks out her shorts
06:10, 25 March 2003
by Colin de Mowbray

The 12 hour reporting period up to 1500 Monday afternoon saw some painfully slow progress with boats only achieving 25 to 30 miles. Since then the wind has come and gone and hopefully come back yet again, but it is going to remain fickle and challenging for a while yet.

Jersey and Bristol continue to match race at the front, chased by London. Liverpool moved up to within 5 miles of London before dropping back. It certainly looks as though the rich have been enjoying the spoils and those at the back have suffered. New York was alongside Glasgow last night but then found a private wind hole and has let the others past. Hong Kong, previously alongside Glasgow now has a three mile advantage and is holding fifth place.

Glasgow, winner of the last race is feeling the absence of their light weight (0.75oz) spinnaker which was irreparably damaged in the last race. Cape Town drifted past New York but all the tail enders have had to take a bitter pill as those further up have got the wind and opened up the field.

The fishing fleets are dominating events at present and will be giving our skipper some a tricky decisions to make, mixing racing with collision avoidance. After two, 3 week long, races across the Pacific the crews would have seen less than 5 boats in all. The difference is just staggering with frequently over 50 fishing boats in close proximity. The fishermen have bright lights to attract the fish but this completely takes away any night vision or the ability of the fishermen to see other traffic.

The weather in Hong Kong has finally cleared and the sun is out. It appears that it is also warming up with the boats and Polly Pratt in Bristol is the first crew to be reported wearing shorts.

When will we be there daddy? Hahaaa, the inevitable question which everyone asks and I am especially bad at giving a straight answer to. The leaders have 435 miles to run. If they can pick up and do 150 miles/day (6.25 knts) they would arrive at the finish off Waglan Island at 0100 GMT Friday (0900 local time). This would be just too good to be true, especially a they never arrive in daylight in Hong Kong. I recommend a planning figure of 120 miles/day (5 knots). That would make their arrival time 1800 GMT (0200 Sat morning local time).

We are expecting a large number of family and supporters to visit in Hong Kong. We will be publishing a separate guide for people coming out so that you know how to contact us and find the yacht club.

Liverpool is experiencing problems with their MiniM and so is not able to send messages out. They are still receiving the Stratos mail via Inmarsat C.

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