Dee and Anna are spending what is considered to be the most romantic day of the year in one of the most remote and hostile places on the planet, the Southern Ocean. However, the all female duo onboard GAES Centros Auditivos are keen to hold true to the Valentines tradition of chasing boys as their pursuit of Andy Meiklejohn & Wouter Verbraak aboard Hugo Boss continues. Having relinquished eighth position to Hugo Boss late last week, the GAES girls have been battling hard to keep the gap between them to a minimum as they seek an opportunity to regain a position in the rankings.
As the fleet have dipped further into the Southern Hemisphere the perils of round the world racing became more apparent when two additional ice gates were introduced to the Barcelona World Race at the end of last month. The ice gate that marked the bottom of the South Atlantic was moved further north to keep the IMOCA Open 60’s away from the worst of the area of ice and another gate was added just to the east of South Africa. The boats are required to pass at least one point to the north of each gate and with the race taking place so late in the southern hemisphere summer it is likely that ice presence will continue to affect the course resulting in more of the gates moving further north. This in turn will increase the distance the boats have to travel making this a longer race than originally anticipated.
Dee and Anna are currently heading towards the south of Cape Leeuwin on the west coast of Australia. The duo’s latest video reveals the topsy turvy life they are experiencing ‘down under’.
Elsewhere in the race Virbac-Paprec 3 continues to lead the fleet with Mapfre second and Estrella Damm third in the Barcelona World Race. At the 0900hrs ranking today, Caffari and Corbella onboard GAES Centros Auditivos were in 9th place, 120 miles behind Andy Meiklejohn & Wouter Verbraak on Hugo Boss.