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3 November 2005, 03:33 pm

Getting Colder

Clipper Round the World Yacht Race 2005-2006

Approximately 600 nautical miles south of the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race fleet lies the island group of Tristan da Cunha, consisting of Tristan, Nightingale and Inaccessible Islands, with Gough Island the fourth one some way off to the south east. As the high pressure system moves off to the east, the yachts have stayed on the port tack to head further south and so pick up the winds as they back around from the east towards north.

This has also had the effect of taking them in to colder regions, and on being asked for his position, Graeme JOHNSTON replied, 'In long johns reaching at ten knots.' For those who know him, a quite terrifying thought. One good thing though is that the drop in temperature keeps fruit for longer, and delays the moment when the first caterpillar crawls out from a dodgy apple.

The biggest thing on the minds of the crews now will be the high pressure system. The fleet will be in decent northerly winds by tomorrow morning, but ahead of them is a large hole. If any of the yachts do fall in to this, they run the risk of being completely becalmed, slowly doing doughnuts as they lose speed and then steerage.

Over the last few days New York Clipper has been dogging the leading pair of Western Australia and Jersey, and this morning has finally picked one of them off, moving up to second place behind Dave PRYCE and his crew on Western Australia. Joff BAILEY, skipper of New York, has been continuously upbeat in his emails, and his recent diary gives a good insight into the decision making process of navigating the weather systems. It will be interesting over the next couple of days to see whether the southern group of Liverpool, Qingdao and Singapore, and especially Glasgow who have really made a southern leap, will pick up stronger winds and move around New York and Western Australia.