Global Ocean Race - A very large bump in the route to Cape Town

The frustration and fatigue of the Doldrums and the monotony of the South East Trades are becoming a distant memory as the six Class40s in the double-handed Global Ocean Race (GOR) dive down into the South Atlantic with a new focus: a high pressure system forming off South America that threatens to block the route to Cape Town. By 15:00 GMT on Monday, five of the six GOR Class40s were through the Fastnet Marine Scoring Gate off Fernando de Norohna with Marco Nannini and Paul Peggs crossing in fourth place at 16:00 GMT on Sunday, taking three points with Financial Crisis; Nick Leggatt and Phillippa Hutton-Squire passing through the gate at 09:01 GMT on Monday morning taking two points on Phesheya-Racing and Nico Budel and Ruud van Rijsewijk in sixth place with Sec. Hayai are just 40 miles from collecting one point.

Overnight on Sunday, Halvard Mabire and Miranda Merron, leading the fleet with Campagne de France, were pushing hard to repel an attack from Ross and Campbell Field with BSL as the wind picked up to 16 knots and moved from east to north-easterly with the New Zealand father-and-son duo hitting averages over 12 knots, capping the distance deficit at 51 miles at dawn on Monday and nibbling away at the lead throughout the day as the speed on both Class40s increased with the two boats separated by 50 miles at 15:00 GMT.

During the weekend, Conrad Colman and Hugo Ramon in third place with Cessna Citation kept the leaders under 400 miles ahead, but as Campagne de France and BSL picked up speed on Monday morning, the distance began to increase. However, by the afternoon, the youngest team in the fleet were also averaging above 12 knots, stabilising the deficit at 420 miles. Meanwhile, Nannini and Peggs slowed down fractionally at the scoring gate with Financial Crisis as the wind clocked to the south, but the Italian-British duo were back up to speed shortly before dawn on Monday, Trailing Cessna Citation by 92 miles on Monday afternoon.