In the latest position report we can see that Dongfeng is heading south-southwest while MAPFRE is heading southeast and the lateral separation is now around 11 miles.
Who split from who? Why? Perhaps there was a cloud and someone got stuck and someone else got away. Maybe one team just said ‘we’ve had enough of this, let’s try and do something different and see whether they cover us.
We will have to wait until Auckland to find out – still another 1,566 nautical miles from Dongfeng’s bow – and by then, of course we will know whether this was a turning point in this leg or just another small and insignificant tactical variation.
But one thing hasn’t changed. The battle between the two crews is still happening in almost painful slow motion as they continue to try to get south in the South Pacific Convergence Zone.
And the teams are still neck-and-neck in terms of distance to the leader, Turn the Tide on Plastic. For Dongfeng it was 92.9 miles; for MAPFRE 93.0. As Xabi Fernandez, the skipper of MAPFRE, put it: “It’s very hard to overtake them and I guess, for them, it’s very hard to overtake us.”
Today the forecast still looks very uncertain ahead with perhaps another 350 miles of slow stuff before Dongfeng hooks into more settled easterly breeze north of New Caledonia.
On board the red and white Volvo Ocean 65, morale looks to be as good as at any time in this race with all smiles on deck. In still photos we see Kevin Escoffier a picture of concentration on the wheel; then Daryl Wislang takes his turn, while Marie Riou in sun hat, together with navigator Pascal Bidegorry and Kevin, pose for a team photo together.
Carolijn Brouwer has been having a bit of fun on Twitter, posting photos of herself on deck with MAPFRE either just a couple of boatlengths ahead or behind. “One would think we are attached by a bungee,” she writes in one post.
In another she sends a message to Sophie Ciszek, her old teammate from Team SCA in the last race and now on board MAPFRE: “What’s for lunch @CiszekSophie? !” she asks.
Latest position report at 0700 UTC:
1. Turn the Tide on Plastic. DTF: 1473nm
2. Team Sun Hung Kai / Scallywag DTL: 18,9nm
3. Team Brunel DTL: 22.1nm
4. Team AkzoNobel DTL : 23.8nm
5. Dongfeng Race Team. DTL: 92.9nm
6. MAPFRE. DTL: 93nm
7. Vestas 11th Hour Racing, DNS
