Today's Sailing News 

The Race: Two Oceans

The Race has progressed to the point where it's a two ocean race. Club Med and Innovation Explorer are through the Cook Straits and onto the Pacific Ocean. The other 3 maxi cats are still covering the Indian Ocean portion of their world tour.

Club Med is still in the lead by 603 miles over Innovation Explorer.
The advantage in the past 24 hours goes to Innovation Explorer which 
covered 582 miles nearly 100 more than Club Med.
Club Med has taken a bit of a dive south, to 54° south. Innovation Explorer is at 49° south. 

The weather forecast seems to favor Innovation
Explorer. They are expected to have plenty of wind in the gale range.
Club Med will have more moderate breezes as low as 10 knots.

The leader of the Indian Ocean group has slowed. Team Adventure is SW of Cape Leuwin and has sailed only 217 miles in 24 hours lowest in the fleet.
Before this relatively calm phase there was hard weather for the 10 man crew. Cam Lewis reports: "The whites and aqua blues were startling 
in their contrast, as 30 to 50-foot waves, breakers atop, streaked northward leaving foaming tails and aerated waters in vibrant aqua blue colors behind."

Team Adventure is trying to sail to the north side of a low so they can have another high speed ride to the east.

Warta Polpharma maintains 4th place. Their 24 hours of work gave
them 423 miles.

Day 37 saw fleet back marker Team Legato notch up another fine day.
They covered 470 miles and again gained on Warta.

It'll be interesting to see how the weather affects the top 3 boats
in the next 24 hours. Who will maintain the wind to sail as they wish?

Today marks the return of Sailing Daily's Times Clipper Update. The 8 boat fleet has left Hawaii for to sail west across the Pacific, off
one side of the map and to the finish on the maps other side in Yokohama
Japan. 

The leg will see some trade winds sailing to begin with. Then a
crossing of the International date line. This will switch the longitude  line on their GPS displays to east.

The distance for this leg is 3750 miles. As a reference point 
the outright record for this route is held by Steve Fossett sailing a
60 foot trimaran. His time 16 days an average of 11.29 knots. The
fleet of Clipper mono hulls is expected to arrive in around 20 days or
so.

Today's Fleet Update:

Leader: Bristol Clipper by 4 miles

Best 24 Hour Run: Bristol Clipper 197 miles 

Position: Boats selecting their routing options. Base course is West and
North.

Current Weather: Force 5 NE

Weather Forecast: Typical trade winds band sailing

Head to the Sailing Daily Forum and discuss sailing!

Today's Vendee Globe Report 

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 Today's Sailing News 

Cam Gram Quote

Team Adventure skipper Cam Lewis is not just a world class sailor 
he's also one of the best sailing writers around. He's writes daily reports/Cam-Grams from his Race Class cat. Here's an excerpt from today's: 
"Dawn in the south was not pretty again for the second day. So many tones of gray would be hard to find on an Awlgrip paint chart. 

The whites and aqua blues were startling in their contrast, as 30 to 50-foot waves, breakers atop, streaked northward leaving foaming tails and aerated waters in vibrant aqua blue colors behind.

Three reefs in the main, storm jib up and down, boat speed kept down 
to 15 knots or so, with surfs to 30. Eye openers these, no room for error on the wheel. Point her down, carve the turn and pump out before the options close with the wall of water coming on.

This is happening every minute of so, walls of water breaking meters 
above my head just outboard of the steering station. Waves careening into the hulls from all angles exploding into smoke. Thanks to our cockpit wall, we are escaping the full force. Helmets with full visors are a must for driving.

The relentless sound of smashing water and plastic never ceases, a
cacophony of noises, the roar of wind  in the rigging, the waves competing,
decibels on top of the chart.

It takes at least an hour to stop flinching when a greenie comes in 
at head height and tries to whip your head back. Bend into it, stand feet planted, two hands on the wheel. Take it. Look back, see what's coming. A lion is loose behind and ready to pounce. Make a move, spin the wheel. Which way? Laugh at it and wait for the next one. Smack, smack, pit, pit. The water hits the brain in bathtub-size chunks. Luckily it only hits the drivers from the shoulders up or they would be flattened."

Montego Bay Race News

Latest reports indicate that lead boats could finish in Jamaica by this evening. 

Position reports from Noon yesterday show the top 5 boats are: Pyewacket, Sagamore, Magnitude, Zephyrus and Blue Yankee.