The only all female duo in the Barcelona World Race were all smiles this morning aboard GAES Centros Auditivos as the rankings showed them two miles ahead of French sailing legend Michel Desjoyeaux (known as Le Professeur) and Francois Gabart on Foncia. British yachtswoman Dee Caffari and her Spanish co skipper Anna Corbella have moved up two places overnight to seventh, having also overtaken ongoing race rivals Pachi Rivero and Antonio Piris on Renault Z.E. Reporting from the boat early this morning, Caffari, said:
Good progress south today in warm and wet conditions. The sky has been blisteringly hot with the odd cloud and the spray has been continual making everything feel sticky from being caked in salt. The weather for the next couple of days will see wind speeds drop slightly and then we need to keep a careful eye on the weather ahead to see if we can hook into something to propel us into the motorway around the bottom!”
After a relatively short Doldrums crossing, GAES Centros Auditivos crossed the Equator and entered the Southern Hemisphere late on Friday night and have since been enjoying fast sailing conditions as they head south. By being further east than much of the fleet Caffari and Corbella are showing as being further along the race course. The all female duo have made decisions that keep them on the eastern side of the fleet and, off to the west, Foncia and Virbac–Paprec 3 have been forced close to the South American coast by the necessity of stopping in Recife. The course Gaes Centros Auditivos takes will be shorter; however, it means a more complex transition zone to cross in a couple of days. The boats to the west will sail a longer course with the pay off of potentially faster boat speeds. The next few days will be very telling; will the largest gains come from the shortest course or the highest boat speeds?
Elsewhere in the race and currently in fifth place, Virbac- Paprec 3 have become the second boat to use ‘ghost mode’ whereby a competitor elects not to appear on the rankings for a 24 hour period. Pepe Ribes and Alex Pella on Estrella Damn are currently in pole position with a lead of 108 miles. At the 0900hrs ranking this morning, Caffari and Corbella on GAES Centros Auditivos were in 7th place, 16 miles ahead of Pachi Rivero and Antonio Piris on Renault Z.E.