Average speeds keep rising at the front of the fleet, indeed in the middle of the fleet too as Jean-Pierre Dick (Paprec Virbac 2) again breaks the 2004 race 24h record covering 442 miles. If they were to sustain this pace they could beat Mike Golding’s 2004 record for the Indian Ocean – Cape of Good Hope to Cape Leeuwin – by over one day.
Golding’s record, set in 2004 when he was playing catch up across the South is 14 days, 21 hours, 30 minutes averaging 13.7 knots. Average speeds since the Cape of Good Hope for the leaders are of the order of 14.2 knots.
Dick’s lead is 49.2 miles this evening, while Roland Jourdain (Veolia Environnement) lies third only 7.4 miles behind Golding.
Michel Desjoyeaux (Foncia) now lies fourth, 71.1 miles off Dick’s lead. He has paid a price for routing too close to the Kerguelen Islands, sailing into their lee. The highest mountain at the south of the islands is 1850m high so the lee would be appreciable.
The fleet leaders are on the heels of a system which will continue to give them 25-30 knots NW’ly for the early part of the weekend. At the moment it is a straight drag race to the next ice gate about 1020 miles to the east.
