They are mirror images of each other in the deep heart of the western Pacific where there is very little wind, and very little wind in prospect, and they are last and equal last, but that is the least of their concerns.
The drone footage from Dongfeng shows a red and white boat sponsored by Dongfeng Motor Corporation cruising along quite nicely with all its sails set on starboard tack on a flat blue sea under blue skies. In the background you can see a red triangle…
The drone footage from MAPFRE shows a red boat with all its sails set cruising along quite nicely on a flat blue sea under blue skies, with a red and white boat to leeward matching it boatlength for boatlength.
Midway through their 14th day at sea the two crews are listed on the position schedule as neck-and-neck – both clocked at 97.2 miles behind the leader Sun Hung Kai Scallywag and making just five knots.
It only underlines how critical this battle at the back has become and what could decide it one way or another. One bad cloud perhaps? One poor watch? One slower driver? One sail change foregone? One windshift missed?
The red boats are now about 105 miles north of the waypoint at Santa Ana Island on the eastern edge of the Solomon group and, like everyone else, stuck in the light and variable winds left over by Tropical Cyclone Gita. That storm – now an ex-Tropical Cyclone – has caused devastation in Tonga and Fiji and is about to hit New Zealand’s South Island.
Ahead of the crews is an area, north-south, of 600-miles of slow sailing which is going to test concentration to the limits over the coming days as they creep ever further south. At the moment there is still a long way to go before steady winds from the east fill in off New Caledonia.
The boats ahead, like the ones behind, are in pairs with Scallywag and Team AkzoNobel five miles apart at the front and to the west-southwest of the others, then Turn the Tide on Plastic and Team Brunel on top of each other, 24 miles further north.
Latest position report at 0700 UTC:
1. Team Sun Hung Kai / Scallywag DTF: 1591nm
2. Team AkzoNobel DTL : 5.7nm
3. Turn the Tide on Plastic. DTL: 24nm
4. Team Brunel DTL: 24.5nm
5. Dongfeng Race Team. DTL: 97.2nm
6. MAPFRE. DTL: 97.2nm
7. Vestas 11th Hour Racing, DNS
