Club Med sailing in the Roaring Forties

The big blue Club Med catamaran, leader of The Race, is now in the Southern Ocean. Sailing in the Roaring Forties at average speeds in excess of 23 knots, the Club Med lead over Team Adventure grew to over 200 miles at one point last night.

Over the past few days the Club Med crew has managed to work the boat into a position where it was able to benefit from the prevailing Westerly winds of a depression typically found in the Roaring Forties before its closest rival Team Adventure. But first into the weather is first to hit the next soft obstacle ahead, in this case the back of the cold front associated with the same depression. The difference in distance to go to the finish between the two leaders had reduced to 154 miles at noon today, but should now remain stable as both boats begin to sail in similar conditions again. Grant Dalton had this to say this morning: "We are in it. This is the South. We have 30 knots but unfortunately we can't use it all. The weather is horrible, very very wet and trying conditions. It is ugly sailing. This is a bad part of the world. Night-time is weird. We were sailing sometimes at 30 knots in the pitch black. Often can't see a damn thing, we have to be really careful."

The reduction in distance between the two leaders is because Club Med picked up the prevailing Westerlies first, stretched out and then, because of the relatively high speeds, sailed into the back of the weather front ahead. A weather front, like anywhere else in the world, is associated with an abrupt change in wind direction. The established wind-driven ocean swell then needs time to re-orientate itself leaving a confused sea in its path, something that is not conducive to easy, fast sailing. Dalton's frustration was expressed thus: "We are embedded in the back of this low pressure system. We have caught it up and are now knocking on the back of the cold front which is not ideal. The sea is very confused and we are not able to really open her up in spite of 30 knots of wind. We just don't have the waves to get the good rides. The Golden Position is not so golden. We've lost 30 miles overnight and this situation may continue as Team Adventure is able to enjoy a better and more established wave pattern and a freer wind angle further behind us." The current weather forecast is for the depression to fill and ease as it moves to the East, which will see both boats sailing in similar conditions again which will allow Club Med to exploit its lead to the full. Dalton's optimism about the future: "We are sailing in those puffy frontal conditions. Hopefully this system will slacken off soon and yield a more stable set of sailing conditions."

But handling this big and powerful catamaran is not for the feint hearted and extra vigilance is required at all times now that the crew are in the South. Earlier today the crew had a warning of what can happen when you push too hard in difficult conditions: "We stuck it in once, sailed into a wave and the boat stopped. I was in my bunk and ended up standing on the bulkhead at the front of my bunk. Neil McDonald was on the mainsheet and went flying straight down the hatch. You have to watch it in this place, one bad wave and it is all over. It will bite you on the backside if you let it." The pace and the concentration shown by the Club Med crew have yielded good results over the past few days. The Race is now very much between Team Adventure and Club Med as Innovation Explorer continues to struggle to sail free from the South Atlantic High more than 500 miles back: "Relative to Loick Peyron and the Innovation Explorer crew, I feel sorry for them. We are a whole weather system ahead of them now."

Positions ­- 11H00 GMT:

1 Club Med           18225.5 miles to go
2 TeamAdventure        154.5 miles from the leader
3 Innovation Explorer  510.1 
4 Warta Polpharma     1671.7
5 Team Legato         2563.9

Météo Consult's weather forecast:

More Information:

• YachtsandYachting.com The Race Information Page