Squally nights and secret sewers...
09:35, 20 May 2003
by Sarah Beaugeard

Last night was a busy one fleet wide. As the boats sail further South the winds are coming back, and after a fairly pleasant day of lightweight spinnaker sailing Richard Butler reported that, as usual, it was right at dinner time that the squalls and the rain started to appear and make the sailing conditions a little more interesting. He was not alone in this, New York Skipper Ross Daniel excitedly apologised to us over the phone last night as we were chasing race positions that were late in. “Sorry Tim, its just that it’s all a bit exciting round here at the moment”. True to form, ‘Roscoe’ had been pushing hard to gain back some lost miles; this is one skipper who certainly takes no pleasure at being at the back of the fleet.

When things had calmed down enough for him to send through the positions to us, he reported that “the wind started to get up at early evening last night every one was hanging on to there heavy weights for as long as they could but eventually when we were heading at India it was time for it to come down but had some good fun with it with some big surfs. We are now white sail reaching with the wind at 25-30knts as this trough moves through.” The gap is closing between the front and the back of the fleet, but with just over 50miles between the Northerly and Southerly boats, it remains to be seen if the boys gamble up North will pay off.

The gang in the South are experiencing similar weather conditions. Squalls plaguing the evenings, the skippers and crew will be settling back into nights of nervous sleep, waiting for the next call to bring a spinnaker down in a hurry. These are just the conditions that may bring stories of sail repair with them, but will anyone tell if they have suffered from sail damage? Skippers are becoming increasingly guarded about their ‘little excitements’ on the radio schedules for obvious tactical reasons. It is always interesting to listen to these stories come out when the fleet reaches port. Just how busy the sail repairers will be in Mauritius, only time will tell..the main worry voiced by many of the skippers is however the fact that these squalls always appear at dinner time – sorry guys, you will have to speak to Neptune about that!

Sitting nicely in the middle of the fleet, Liverpool, Hong Kong, Cape Town currently have my attention. Adam Kyffin and his crew onboard Liverpool Clipper are all obviously relishing the recent feistier conditions to sail in and are holding their second position well. Meanwhile Hong Kong and Cape Town will have been sailing as fast as they can to keep a cover over London and New York in the North. Their progress is certainly worth watching over the next few days.

Last to mention is Glasgow Clipper “Holding onto the coat tails of the fleet”, ever relaxed in his approach, Rupert reported that his crew were “having a lovely sail at the moment and were all happy”…he doesn’t have us fooled however, and they have been making their way into that middle pack, gaining miles here and there over the last 24 hours. Not even halfway there yet, and we will undoubtedly see these positions change a few more times.

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