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BT GLOBAL CHALLENGE - THREE WEEKS DOWN, THREE WEEKS TO GO... Southampton (UK), Wednesday December 11th 1996 The 194 sailors of the BT Global Challenge continue to make their way across the Southern Ocean towards Wellington (New Zealand), and they are counting the days until they reach dry land. At 07.50 hrs GMT today Group 4 was leading the way fifteen miles ahead of Save the Children, who is in 2nd place. Global Teamwork is lying in 3rd, 18 miles behind Save the Children, with Concert only 6 miles behind her in 4th. Average speed of the fleet was 7 knots, and best 24 hour run for yesterday (199 miles) was logged by 3Com, who is currently lying in 10th place. The fleet report "good sailing sunshine" (Concert), "another bonus day of blue skies and sun, quite a large swell but lovely sailing" (Heath Insured II - 12th place), and "a day of sailing bathed in sunshine" (Pause to Remember, 7th). The sea was reported to be rough yesterday, which made for some exciting sailing on board Toshiba Wave Warrior (6th place); "there was quite a big sea so helming was tremendous. The yacht steadily climbs steep waves, then as the bottom falls out of the wave, the yatch nosedives and crashes back down to the surface." Enormous waves (known as goffers) have been sweeping over the decks, buffetting crew members and giving everyone cause to hold on tight. The crews have now been at sea for three weeks, with an estimated three more to sail before they step onto the quayside in Wellington, and time is passing slowly. Days tend to be rather similar, and the passing of time is marked by the watch system operated by all fourteen yachts, with each crew member on watch for 4 or 6 hours at a time. There is little to distinguish one day of the week from another, and the estimated time for completing this leg of 7,200 miles is 40 days - which makes this now the longest leg of the whole race. As a 3Com crew member commented, "the crew continue to bemoan the installation of waypoint Echo - where's your Xmas cheer? We would like some, too. 40 days in the Southern Ocean is a long time." Courtaulds International crew member Tim Jeffery wrote "the watch system makes the 40 day voyage more managable as the days of the week, weekends, etc simply have no meaning out here" (Courtaulds International is currently at the back of the fleet in 14th place). The first boats into Wellington are expected to arrive on or around December 30th, so the fleet will be spending Christmas day at sea. Over the next two weeks, individual yachts will be making their preparations for celebrating December 25th, and these plans will be featured in the daily Race News reports. On board Save the Children, preparations are already well in hand, as detailed in the following report : "Christmas is coming and the crew are not so fat... we have told Santa where we will be and he promised he will come and visit us on Christmas Day. He said he may have trouble getting all the presents here so we have stored them in the skipper's cabin in a blue box and left him a little note so he can find them - I'm sure he'll know where they are. We do have a little something stored away for Christmas but we can't talk about that right now. We also have a bottle of port which we will be toasting lots of people with - the crew of HMS Lancaster being top of our list (see Race News report no. 67 for details). We've got two Christmas puddings and something special that the purser hasn't told me about yet but has promised to show me on Christmas Day. We have a few decorations and plan to make some more - with sticky backed plastic and washing up bottles, of course. We have extra food for the festive day and plan to eat it all. We are also duty boat for Christmas Day and we are planning a very special, alternative Christmas chat show including Christmas jokes, a song or two and a very special visit, by radio, to Santa's cheeky grotto with its collection of sarcastic presents for all the yachts in the fleet - and we are not holding back..." For updated information on the BT Global Challenge : Internet site : http://www.btchallenge.com Fax database : 0990 321123 (+44 990 321123 from outside UK) Recorded telephone information line : 0891 505550 Public enquiry line : 01703 212124 (+44 1703 212124 from outside UK) Ceefax page 388 |
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