Clipper 09-10 San Francisco to Panama – Day 15

by Clipper Ventures PLC on 5 May 2010 Team Finland, second behind Spirit of Australia in the overall standings, has climbed another rung on the leader board in the last 24 hours, nosing ahead of Edinburgh Inspiring Capital who has put in a solid performance on this race.

Rob McInally, skipper of the Finnish entry says, 'What a day. We started with great spinnaker sailing which became lighter and lighter winds. We then had a squall which made us change to Yankee 1 and stay sail. We then returned to the spinnaker for the winds yet again to get lighter and lighter.”

“We had a fly by from the US Navy who dipped their wings and then the wind just completely disappeared. The evening came with a massive heat haze and lightning with still absolutely no wind. What will tomorrow bring? Did everyone have a similar fate or did the fleet get away?'

The reports from the skippers this morning suggest the former.

'It truly is a case of from the sublime to the ridiculous!' writes Hannah Jenner in her morning report to the race office.

The Cork skipper, who is leading the Qingdao team for this race to Panama where she will take over at the head of the Irish team, explains, 'First thing this morning we were close reaching under medium weight kite making ten knots directly to the finish line, now we are fighting to stop ourselves going backwards in the North Equatorial Current - the only common denominator is that none of the conditions we have sailed through today were forecast.”

'We are surrounded by lightning filled clouds and apparently a light breeze but such is the violent motion of the boat as she is lurched by the sea state, any wind is knocked clean out of the sails.”

“On the plus side, at least we know Spirit of Australia and Jamaica Lightning Bolt are
in the same situation!'

It may be some consolation that frustration levels are just as high on board Jamaica Lightning Bolt from where skipper, Pete Stirling, reports, 'Another frustrating 24 hours with little wind has rolled by and still we maintain a visual contact with Qingdao.”

“Only now we can also see Spirit of Australia. It really is testament to how well matched these yachts and crews are that, after racing over 2,600 miles the first three
yachts are within seven miles of each other.”

'Though the next yacht behind us is over 30 miles away this is by no means a comfortable buffer. With the weather conditions we have and what is forecast ahead of us this mileage could easily be eaten up in just a few hours.”

“The forecast shows there should be better winds just a few tantalising miles to the south east of us but first of all we have to get there.”

'We too have been surrounded by wildlife for the last few days with birds roosting on the top of the mast, hundreds of acrobatic dolphins and turtles galore, swimming idly by. The one thing we haven't seen, though apparently we should have, are any whales. Mind you there is still time yet.'

The first three teams are so close now the lead is changing hands regularly, something that is only serving to make the highly competitive crew of Spirit of Australia work even harder, according to Brisbane skipper, Brendan Hall.

'We are starting to see a familiar daily pattern emerging over the last few days,' he says.

'Early morning, the wind builds and we get six to eight hours of great, powered up sailing. Late afternoon, the wind begins to drop and by 9 or 10pm it is all but gone, leaving us bobbing about with our lightest sails up, hardly moving.”

“We have been in company with Qingdao and Jamaica Lightning Bolt today, which has lifted the game of everyone on board. Seeing another boat so close puts a fire in
everyone's belly and we're working the boat very hard.'

Despite the disappointment of seeing the fleet stretch out in front of them again after 36 hours of making good gains on their inshore track, California's crew still on their toes and making every puff of wind and sail evolution count.

Skipper, Pete Rollason, says, 'It has been incredibly frustrating for myself and the crew to watch as the fleet pulled out some miles on us when the GRIB files were showing that we should have better winds in our position.”

“Guess the weather forecast isn't always right; the trouble is it is only always wrong when you need it to be right.”

'We anticipate that there are still five or six days of racing left to Panama and that means that the crew of California are doubling their efforts to harness every little puff of wind to advance our position in the fleet before arriving in Panama.”

“The weather has been pretty interesting, very light winds all day and thunder squalls at night, the latest of which managed to spin us through 360 degrees (not a roll as on
the previous leg) with continual wind shifts and increase in strength from five or six knots to 28-30 in a matter of seconds.”

“Fortunately we had seen it coming and dropped the lightweight kite with moments to
spare, again a fabulous demonstration of the ability of this crew when the pressure is on.”

'We also had a visit from the US Air Force today. After calling us up on the VHF radio they made a pass in their AWACS aircraft along our port side at an altitude of no more than 200 feet.”

'So the chase is on and should the weather be right this time we should experience some better winds with our position closer to the coast.'

It seems the US armed forces have been buzzing several of the fleet - Cape Breton Island was also the recipient of a friendly dip of the wings from the pilot. Cape Breton Island crew member, Carol Reed is an aviation expert and for the plane spotters has identified it as an E3 Sentry US Navy Maritime Patrol Plane!

It's been a busy day on the Canadian yacht with endless sail changes; fly pasts, the visit of a fearless little green bird that shows all the signs of having taken up permanent residence and even more wildlife in the water - including the skipper. Jan Ridd had to dive under the boat to free it from a fishing line.

He explains, 'As the sun set we were nicely sailing upwind when about half a mile to our port side we could see a buoy but we could not make out any markings on it. We all knew what the buoy was when we saw a blue floating line across the surface just in front of the boat.”

“With no time to avoid it we sailed into a fisherman's long-line, a method of fishing
where a very long string of baited hooks are set from a float and allowed to drift until the fisherman retrieves them. With the line tightening towards the distant float we had to make some quick decisions, so we hove to stop the boat and quickly dropped all sails.”

“I made a quick assessment and we had obviously caught the line against our keel. With no idea how far the line extended on the other side away from the float I quickly put on a climbing harness, tied myself onto a long length of rope and, with a diver's knife, jumped over the side to cut the Big Blue Canoe free from the now very tight line.”

“I cut the line on both sides of the boat and quickly dove down to make sure it had not
fouled our propeller or rudder. With the line now removed and the way ahead no longer blocked we hoisted sails and came back onto course.”

'We are still becalmed and actually slowly drifting northwards away from Panama with the ocean current, there is nothing we can do but sit and wait it out, very frustrating in such a close race but at least the amazing wildlife show will be there to distract us.'

Positions at 0900 UTC, Wednesday 5 May

Boat	Distance to finish	Distance to leader
1 Spirit of Australia	621nm
2 Qingdao	622nm	1nm
3 Jamaica Lightning Bolt	626nm	5nm
4 Team Finland	652nm	31nm
5 Edinburgh Inspiring Capital	664nm	43nm
6 Cape Breton Island	671nm	50nm
7 Hull & Humber	683nm	62nm
8 Uniquely Singapore	695nm	74nm
9 California	724nm	103nm
10 Cork	Did not start