Gap between leaders closing Portimao Global OR

by Brian Hancock on 15 Nov 2008 The tension is mounting as the Portimao Global Ocean Race Tracker addicts anxiously await each three-hourly poll to see if the gap between the German team, Beluga Racer, and the Chileans aboard Desafio Cabo de Hornos, is closing. And it is closing - fast.

At the 12:20 UTC poll on Thursday Beluga Racer led by a comfortable 190 nautical miles. Twenty four hours later the gap is down to just 89 miles as the Chileans storm up from behind on a fresh breeze.

Aboard Beluga Racer there is not much co-skippers Boris Herrmann and Felix Oehme can do except sail hard, and pray. And, it seems, write poetry. To ease the tension Felix put pen to paper and sent us this missive.

Go Baby, go!
Is there anything Boris and I can do for you?
Do you feel comfortable with a heeling angle of 20° and the balance of main and foresail?
You like some more tension on the main sheet? I can put it on.
And you prefer some more water in the windward water ballast tank? I can pump some water in.
You do not like the Genoa, you’d like the Code 0? I can change sails as you wish.
Do you like me to ease the traveller slightly? I do that for you.
Your batteries are flat? I can recharge them.
Anything you want, but 'Go Baby, go'.
Catch the wind with you sails. Cut the waves with your bow and swing your rudders through the water. Fly towards Cape Town as fast as you can.

The problem for Beluga Racer started over a week ago when an aberrant region of high pressure parked directly in their path toward Cape Town. In hindsight, perhaps they should have bitten the bullet and taken a hitch south, but their weather routing programs were optimistic that they would get through the high without slowing and at the time they enjoyed a lead of over 600 miles. What a difference a week makes. While Boris and Felix strain to sail dead upwind at 6 knots, Desafio Cabo de Hornos is roaring along at double the speed. If the conditions stay the same there could well be a lead change by tomorrow.

Aboard Desafio Cabo de Hornos co-skippers Felipe Cubillos and José Muñoz are working hard to eke every hundredth of a knot from their bright red Class 40. They know that the stakes are high and they are not taking anything for granted. 'The coming days will be very intense and emotional for us and for the German boat as the future is definitely uncertain,' Felipe wrote. 'We are running two weather projections on our software and one of them has Beluga Racer winning and the other has us winning. It’s that close.'

Then, also in a poetic frame of mind, Felipe added. 'My mother will be surprised with what I am going to say next, but there is a Catholic prayer that has helped me a lot in my life. It goes something like this: Lord, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change....the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.'

Felipe’s prayer may well be answered in the form of a Southern Ocean low that is tracking across the South Atlantic. On the north side of the low are strong westerlies. The system is fast moving and for now tracking due east. If it’s track shifts ever so slightly to the north, Desafio Cabo de Hornos will benefit from the extra wind. If it tracks slightly south they will get less wind perhaps leaving an opening for Beluga Racer.

A tentative ETA for the first boat is late in the day Sunday, November 16. Table Mountain casts a long wind shadow; anything can happen in the last 15 miles, but that’s the beauty of ocean racing.