The low pressure system which is coming from the South of Tasmania is
now moving towards the South of New Zealand while strengthening. It is
going to cross the route of both leaders. They will have to face
Southwesterly winds up to 45 knots and heavy seas. Banque Populaire
which possesses a good hundred miles lead will be closer to the center
of this depression and should have winds stronger than Hugo Boss.
The
question for the skippers is to know if they will have to slow down or
not, as Yann Eliès did a few days ago to allow the low coming from
Madagascar to pass ahead of him. The faster they sail, the tougher the
conditions will be. They need to find the right compromise between speed
and the risk of breaking something on the © Great Circleboat. For Hugo Boss, that can be the opportunity to catch up a few miles over Banque Populaire.
The group of 6 chasing boats is sailing to the North of the following
low. They now have a different system from the 2 leaders. It will not
be easy to catch them. The third group led by Louis Burton is situated at more than 1100
miles back from Thomas Ruyant. They are in the third system and have to
sail along the border of the Arctic exclusion zone to avoid the high
pressure system to their North.
Sébastien Destremau and Didac Costa are trying not to be caught by the high pressure system which is building to their West. We now have several groups of boats which sail in different systems. They are © Great Circlespread out
about 7500 miles. While the first ones begin to look at what could
happen as they approach Cape Horn in two weeks from now, the ones at the
rear will be crossing the longitude of the Cape of Good Hope.
(www.vendeeglobe.org)
Nessun commento:
Posta un commento