ETA for Club Med finish in Marseilles between 2nd/3rd March

Slow but steady progress North

Club Med is sailing steadily North in the North East Trades and continues to hold a significant lead over second placed Innovation Explorer, at noon today Club Med was more than 800 miles closer to the finish.

Although this is an upwind section of the course, the efforts and loads on the boat aren't as bad as the crew anticipated they would be as the wind strength and sea state, normally associated with this part of the world, just aren't there. Joined by satellite telephone this morning skipper Grant Dalton had this to say: "12 knots of boatspeed in 11 knots of wind, not bad but there should really be more wind here. We are in the Trade Wind regime but it really isn't very powerful. They are not going to pump so we won't be sailing very fast up here. At least it means there is less risk of breaking the boat." The reason for this benign weather situation is as with all meteorological phenomena highly complex. Dalton explained in layman's terms what it all actually means for Club Med: "The Azores High is basically not there. The Vendée Globe boats have had a terrible time trying to get North in no wind. But a small depression is developing quite far South, and we should pick it up between the Canaries and the Cape Verde Islands. It will be good for us and we will be able to use it to take us at least as far as Gibraltar. I don't see the weather changing dramatically over the next few days or even a week. The distance that Innovation Explorer is behind us will not change. It shouldn't be seen as distance anymore, it is more a time thing now. We are 860 miles closer to the finish than him but in reality it is more than 1000 miles in latitude and he will probably cross the Equator three days after us in about the same place."

But it is not all science. The crew on board the maxi catamaran don't miss the changing seasons, they are right there with them everyday: "The weather is getting cooler again. I caught Jacques Caraes sleeping in his sleeping bag last night. It is amazing how in the space of less than two weeks we can sail from the deep South, iceberg country towards the North and the more temperate zones, then the Tropics, the equator and now again it is getting colder as we approach Europe in the middle of winter. Everyday we see the climate changing."

More Information:

• YachtsandYachting.com The Race Information Page