More African drama for the Global Ocean Race fleet

Conditions off the coast of Africa for the six Class40s in the Global Ocean Race (GOR) fleet continue to vary dramatically as the teams hunt for the elusive North East Trade Winds. The South African duo of Nick Leggatt and Phillippa Hutton-Squire in sixth place on Phesheya-Racing finally dug into some breeze shortly before midnight on Sunday, releasing them from imprisonment in a wind vacuum 90 miles north-east of the Canaries. As Nico Budel and Ruud van Rijsewijk, in fifth place, maintained their course for a rendezvous with a replacement A6 for Sec. Hayai on Gran Canaria, Leggatt and Hutton-Squire kept 60 miles off the coast of Morocco with a gap of 180 miles to fourth place Financial Crisis.

While the race leaders, Halvard Mabire and Miranda Merron on Campagne de France and Ross and Campbell Field with BSL ran into a light airs early on Monday morning as the two boats crossed into the Tropic of Cancer 60 miles off the coast of Western Sahara, Marco Nannini and Paul Peggs on Financial Crisis and Conrad Colman and Hugo Ramon with Cessna Citation in third held the breeze fractionally longer than the leaders with Colman and Ramon collecting 29 miles from the front pair’s lead between midday Sunday and midday Monday and Nannini and Peggs holding onto Cessna Citation after dropping behind at the Canary Islands.

Following the incident with a rusting, highly-inquisitive fishing boat over the weekend, Halvard Mabire and Miranda Merron have had restless nights on Campagne de France: “Obviously, the following night we didn’t sleep too much and paranoia set in,” confirms Mabire. “Any similar ship coming anywhere near immediately becomes suspect and a potential threat.” Since the encounter, the duo has sailed between 60 -70 miles off the coast: “We continue our descent towards the south, always going along this cursed coast – but not too close - moving through air that’s like dirty, yellow, cotton wool with minimal visibility.” The warm water coming up from the south along the coast meeting colder water from the southerly-flowing Canary Current has produced thick fog and gyres delivering uncomfortable conditions. “We’re fighting the adverse current and it’s quite violent making a sea filled with potholes because of the many peaks and cliffs underwater that rise several hundred metres from the seabed to a couple of dozen metres below the surface,” he reports. “For the moment, this isn’t a very pleasant place to be, but the race goes on.”

However, on Sunday night, the race temporarily stopped for Campagne de France. With Mabire and Merron’s Pogo 40S² making eight knots under spinnaker, the Class40 ran straight into a network of fishing pots and lines for a third time: “We were 50 miles offshore with around 100 metres depth and the lights of the fishing boats were extremely dim in the pitch black night,” explained Mabire on Monday afternoon. “You really couldn’t see the lights until about 100 metres away, and only if you were looking very hard,” he adds. The boats approached Campagne de France to check their fishing gear: “While they were alongside, they took the opportunity to ask if we had any cigarettes and whisky and I thought of explaining that our sponsor, Campagne de France, only distributes food, but it was going to get complicated,” he reports. “I asked how on earth we could get out of this labyrinth of fishing nets and lines.” With vague hand signals from the fisherman a direction was given, a gennaker was hoisted and Campagne de France got underway….almost. “We just didn’t seem to be going at the right speed relative to the wind,” says the French co-skipper. Checking around the boat with a torch, Mabire and Merron appeared to be towing a large part of Western Sahara’s commercial fishing equipment: “We looked back in the wake and there was a single float attached to an enormous network of lines trailing out behind us and we were completely trapped with the whole mess wrapped around the keel.” In pitch blackness with a strong current, the option of diving under the boat was off the agenda: “We took one look at the mesh of ropes and lines and the pale flesh of the bait on the nasty-looking hooks and realised it was just too dangerous.” Dropping the sails, the duo spent the remainder of the night disentangling Campagne de France: “It wasn’t an enjoyable experience and we’re both glad it’s over and we’re underway again,” adds Mabire.