Sailing is, as is generally known, sometimes quite strange. Not the shortest route is necessarily the fastest, but the route with the most wind, which should also blow from a good direction. The fast diversions is particularly often sought by multihulls and fast flounders such as Volvo Ocean racing yachts. And it was precisely in this search for optimum conditions that Puma's tactician Tom Addis and skipper Ken Read risked an extremely northerly route single-handed, along the coast of Taiwan up to the islands off the coast of Japan. It was almost perverse because they were travelling in the opposite direction to their destination for practically days. According to position tracking, they were already more than 200 miles behind the leaders at one point.
And the competition joked: "Now that Ken (Read) has re-read the sailing instructions and realised we're not sailing up to Qingdao, I wouldn't bet against them joining us again," blogged Abu Dhabi skipper Ian Walker, for example. And Read shot back: "Tell Ian which one of us arrives in Auckland later, pays the first round."
In the meantime, Puma was indeed making rapid progress. The freshening north-westerly meant a space sheet course and an average speed of almost 16 knots, while the leading camper, which chose a more southerly route, was struggling along at eight knots in a light easterly wind. According to the satellite, Puma was still 140 miles behind on Sunday night, but because the wind is invisible from space, the position report is of little significance at the moment, as the field is still sailing in a broad phalanx to the east (or, in Abu Dhabi's case, to the north-east), away from the destination in New Zealand, which lies to the south-east. Whoever reaches the trade winds first, it seems, will have the laughs on their side.
Apart from that? The sun came out and with it the attacking spirit of Telefonica, who are also in the south and mathematically moved up from 5th to 2nd place, swapping places with Groupama. However, Franck Cammas, like Puma, is convinced that the wind will pick up in the north first, which has set his squad back on the position calculator, at least temporarily. A breath of fresh air for Abu Dhabi and Sanya, who are still sailing close to each other. But nothing is fixed, because there are still more than 4000 miles to Auckland and the Rossbreiten are still on the way.
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In search of the Passat
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