25 February 2012
Good progress for Phesheya-Racing in abnormal Southern Ocean conditions
After 27 days at sea in Leg 3 of the Global Ocean Race (GOR), the trio of boats still racing are split between the South Atlantic and the Southern Ocean. At midday GMT on Saturday, fleet leaders Conrad Colman and Adrian Kuttel are 119 miles off the coast of Patagonia with Cessna Citation making good pace towards the finish having broken through light headwinds. Holding second place, Marco Nannini and Hugo Ramon cut the corner with Financial Crisis emerging from Le Maire Strait at 23:00 GMT on Friday, leaving the Southern Ocean just before nightfall in the South Atlantic.
South-west of Cape Horn at 58S, the South African duo of Nick Leggatt and Phillippa Hutton-Squire on Phesheya-Racing have tapped into following breeze in the semi-static, Southern Ocean high pressure system that has dogged their passage to the Felipe Cubillos Cape Horn Gate, but are making good progress: “The barometer has been absolutely flat on about 1024mb for over 48 hours, maybe even 72 hours now,” reported Nick Leggatt on Saturday morning. “The wind has gradually backed into the south as we have rounded the bottom of the high necessitating a gybe early this morning,” he continues. “In fact, as we skirt the south side of the high pressure the weather has been remarkably stable and yesterday evening we hoisted the A4 spinnaker.”
At 12:00 GMT on Saturday, Phehseya-Racing was averaging 8.8 knots with 355 miles reindexing until crossing the Felipe Cubillos Cape Horn Gate. As Leggatt celebrated his birthday on Friday, Phesheya-Racing dropped to 59S – the deepest the South Africans have ventured into the Southern Ocean: “As a matter of interest, in terms of latitude we are only 120 miles north of Elephant Island, the scene of perhaps the most famous Antarctic survival story, where Sir Ernest Shackleton's crew sheltered for months while he took a small, wooden, open boat and some colleagues to seek help from the whaling station at South Georgia,” Leggatt explains.
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