British yachtswoman, Dee Caffari, and her Spanish co skipper Anna Corbella were making good ground aboard their yacht GAES Centros Auditivos this morning as they make their way through the notorious Doldrums heading towards the equator. So far the duo have not fallen foul of the fickle conditions of the Doldrums and are hot on the heels of their closest race rivals, Iker Martinez and Xabi Fernandez on Renault Z.E who were just six miles ahead at the 0900hrs ranking. The tussle between GAES Centros Auditivos and Renault Z.E. has been closely fought over the last few days with both boats wanting to make the most of the faster speeds while they can. With the equator crossing just over 100 miles away, the girls are keen to get into the southern hemisphere and more consistent winds.
Reporting from the boat this morning, Caffari, said:
“We are currently sailing under dark clouds some of which hold some rain, some of which hold an increase of wind and some that hold a change of direction of wind. Fortunately we have kept the boat speed and a reasonable amount of wind as we focus on trying to sail south as fast as possible to cross this difficult patch of ocean. In the distance we can see lightning and it illuminates the sky showing us all the cloud shapes. It makes everything slightly uncomfortable as you never know what is going to happen. We hope we will continue south and daylight will make things feel a little easier and less stressful.”
Harry Spedding, Project Manager for GAES, explained the Doldrums conditions the duo is experiencing:
“The Barcelona World Race has started very late in the year, particularly by comparison to other transatlantic or circumnavigation races. This means that weather patterns are different to those experienced by teams in the past and in some cases this is good, particularly at the moment as the Doldrums are not very active, and are allowing for more consistent progress. However, this does not mean that they are having an easy time as there are sharp changes in wind direction due to down drafts from cloud formations, the temperature inside the boat will be getting near to 40 degrees centigrade and the humidity will be horrible. So resting, as always, will be difficult and it is important that they are fully concentrating when on deck, because missing a wind shift will lose them miles.”
Elsewhere in the race, the two leading boats Virbac- Paprec 3 and Foncia are both making their way west to Recife on the coast of Brazil to make a technical stop which will put Pepe Ribes and Alex Pella on Estrella Damn in pole position. Caffari and Corbella on GAES Centros Auditivos are currently in 9th place, with a six mile gap to Pachi Ribero and Antonio Piris on Renault Z.E. The only other British competitor in the Barcelona World Race, Alex Thomson, has made the tough decision not to rejoin Hugo Boss in the Cape Verde islands as planned, with substitute skipper Wouter Verbraak now remaining onboard for the duration.