The doldrums during downpours and the hourly lead changes down at the Cape of Good Hope should be a thing of the past. Because the forecast is now for wind from "below" with 30 to 35 knots, current from "above", exactly against it. "Could bring six-metre waves," suspects Campers navigator Will Oxley.
Everyone wants to cross the current band as quickly as possible before the fragile boats have passed their sell-by date. Then it's time to buckle up, step on the gas and sail along with a low-pressure front that builds up off the coast of south-east Africa and then quickly moves off to the east. Those who jump on in time will enjoy fresh to gale force winds blowing from a favourable direction. The organisers hope that this could even set a new record.
However, anyone who misses the crossing, as Camper and Groupama did in the first leg, could quickly find themselves with a three-digit gap that will be difficult to make up. Telefonica and Sanya were still under land at 2 o'clock CET and were more than 18 miles behind the leaders from Abu Dhabi. Behind them, Groupama, Camper and Puma fanned out.
Such calculation and positioning games will soon be over, however, as the so-called "stealth zone" begins at the northern tip of Madagascar, where the boats' GPS transmitters are switched off to prevent lurking pirates from opening the door to attacks. So it will be a bit like before, when you didn't have real-time position tracking and had to wait for the position reports from the boats. It is currently not known how far the ships will sail before they are loaded onto a freighter and transported onwards to Abu Dhabi. However, the party and Coldplay concert will take place in Abu Dhabi on New Year's Day. And everyone wants to be at the finish line by then.
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Current positions and distances in the Live tracker.
