Puma Ocean Racing Powered by Berg Tack, Tack, and tack again
22 February 2012
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At 2200 UTC tonight, CAMPER maintained a 10.4 nautical mile (nm) lead over Groupama 4 despite narrowly avoiding a huge unlit buoy earlier, something that navigator Will Oxley described as a ‘complete show-stopper in the dark’. The many oilrigs and platforms that dot the area south of Hong Kong have also kept the crews at the height of awareness for most of today. The team plans to slip just under the southern tip of Taiwan and sneak through the Luzon Strait before the wind shuts down and the whole area becomes a glassy, windless zone.
The solutions on how to exit the South China Sea effectively vary wildly. Options include shooting away to the southeast and just shaving the Philippines, while another suggests heading north around the island of Taiwan. It is a pivotal moment in the leg, where winners can be losers and vice versa.
It has been another tough day for the Americans onboard PUMA’s Mar Mostro, who earlier carried out five exhausting tacks in 40 minutes. The crew is feeling beaten up, but trying to remain positive after a bad day in the office. The options ahead are not clear for them and the team is yet to make firm decisions on which way to go, but is seriously considering taking the northerly option around Taiwan in order to avoid the glassy snare ahead, although it will mean sailing around 400 extra miles.
In a lateral split spanning 13 or so nautical miles, this evening Team Sanya has moved both up and down the order and now lies in a respectable third place, 17.7 nm behind CAMPER. Average speeds vary from 13 knots for Groupama 4, to 9.8 knots for Telefónica and the fleet is divided by 40.2 nm from CAMPER in first place and PUMA 40.2 nm back in sixth.
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