Two oceans in 22 days... Cape of Good Hope to Cape Horn

"We rounded Cape Horn at 0430 UT on 11th February. A 25-knot south of south-west wind, flying the big gennaker and mainsail. A beautiful moonlit night, so we had a clear view of Cape Horn. Now we all have the right to pee into the wind" Clear, to the point and instant is how best to describe the e-mail the Race Directors received from Mike Quilter, Club Med's navigator ! As incredible as it may seem ... it took The Race leader just 41 days and 9 hours to round Cape Horn, a sign of deliverance from the Southern Ocean and a new trigger for the home stretch up to Marseille. What incredible average speeds they are capable of! Club Med has crossed the Indian and Pacific Oceans in under 22 days. To put it another way, she has sailed from the Cape of Good Hope to Cape Horn in just over three weeks. Innovation Explorer will be rounding the legendary rock tomorrow in daylight hours and Team Adventure is getting ready to stop once again but this time in Wellington due to further delamination problems. The little Warta-Polpharma is surfing along on the crest of a wave of happiness a little under 1000 miles from Cam Lewis's giant, whilst Team Legato is grappling with light ...

Club Med has turned her back on the Southern Ocean and will be encountering rather more familiar weather systems : the Saint Helena High, the Doldrums, the Azores High and the Mediterranean with its fickle winds. Alexis de Cenival, crewman and doctor on board Club Med : "No doubt about it, it's important to round Cape Horn and get out of the Southern Ocean. It'll' give us the chance to get the inside of the boat dried out and our things too. I had already "done" the Horn on a Whitbread race but it still remains a great moment !". At the 11h00 GMT position fix, the first-placed boat had a 821.7-mile lead over Innovation Explorer who is getting ready to round Cape Horn herself, during daylight hours tomorrow. Elena Caputo (Innovation Explorer) during today's radio chat, described their weather conditions: "We've got three reefs in the main and the wind is picking up. Yes, the wind is on the increase and it is already between 25 and 40 knots. Quite a strong blow is forecast but it would appear that the low is going to show up a bit later than planned. So, we should be getting round the Horn with a maximum wind of 40 knots and well before the low". Although Elena has already lived through a fair number of hairy moments in ocean racing, she knows that it is best to avoid arranging meeting up with a major low pressure system in the famous Drake Passage. The winds have great fun picking up between the two continents and the waves are oversized due to the steep rise in the ocean bed. On the first Trophée Jules Verne, Bruno Peyron ran into a major storm as he approached Cape Horn together with two of The Race's current players, Jacques Vincent et Cam Lewis, both of whom are on Team Adventure. Innovation Explorer's average hourly speed has dropped to 24 knots along the coast of Chili, but you can imagine only too well that many of those on board Innovation Explorer are really looking forward to this moment. Only four have the right to wear an earring for the time being : Loïck Peyron from his first Vendée Globe, Skip Novak and Roger Nilson from their Whitbread participations and finally Elena Caputo.

Quotes:

Alexis de Cenival (Club Med) at the official 13h00 radio chat session: "Rounding the Horn was cool ! We had a 25-knot wind astern and were taking things nice and easy. Pity that it was night-time although there was a full moon so we could make it out. We saw the lighthouse and sailed past Yvon Fauconnier's boat with Bruno Peyron on board. We were sailing at 25 knots and so it was just a flying visit. We even made an offering to the Horn of the leg of ham which we had smuggled on board, not forgetting to keep a little for the Atlantic !"

Elena Caputo (Innovation Explorer) at the official 13h00 radio chat session: "It's really good that Ellen will be finishing second in the Vendée Globe. It goes to show that you don't need to have muscles to sail. This young woman has shown that at the age of 24 she has something between her ears together with an enormous amount of determination. That'll bring the machos down a peg or two !"

Jacques Vincent (Team Adventure) at the official 13h00 radio chat session: "As usual, each time we head north, we run into anti-cyclonic masses. We're doing just 7 knots which isn't that bad. It's the top speed you will get out of a First 30 (production series yacht launched onto the market in 1976) ! Basically, we've just stepped off the TGV (high speed train) and are chuffing along onto Thomas the Tank Engine !"

Latest Positions:

Pos Boat                Lat        Long        DTF     24hr. Av.Sp From Lead
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1  Club Med            54 05.56'S  62 03.96'W  6862.5 478.2  19.9       0.0
 2  Innovation Explorer 54 31.96'S  85 02.16'W  7677.6 558.7  23.3     815.1 
 3  TeamAdventure       44 20.40'S 159 23.60'E 12064.4 371.0  15.5    5202.0
 4  Warta Polpharma     45 19.72'S 139 13.48'E 12920.4 416.9  17.4    6057.9
 5  Team Legato         49 28.88'S 112 55.32'E 13956.8 336.4  14.0    7094.3

More Information:

• YachtsandYachting.com The Race Information Page