THE Derry Clipper is making a charge for its third leg victory in the race between China and Seattle.
The Clipper Race fleet is experiencing the ‘North Pacific Railway’ right now, according to race Meteorologist Simon Rowell, with a regular timetable of low/ridge/low coming through.
A ridge of high pressure is whipping through the fleet from west to east today and then it will be back in the thick of another strong low system by tomorrow.
Teams have been consolidating their positions to ride the rollercoaster of weather systems and it remains relatively tight amongst the front half of the fleet as the miles count down to Seattle.
With Derry out in front by 105 nautical miles, In second position LMAX Exchange has a lead of around 17 nautical miles over Unicef.
The variety of conditions reported by skippers indicates the ridge is passing over the frontrunners this morning.
Derry clipper skipper Daniel Smith said: “We’d started to believe that maybe we’d outrun the storm.
“We’d had a consistent 30 knots with it touching 35 and been making great speed.
“The weather files indicated we’d had the peak wind strength and it would gradually be easing.
“The Pacific had other ideas…the wind built to 40 knots and 2 reefs went in.
“Conditions were wet with black, starless skies and confused seas making helming very hard. By the morning the wind was increasing again so breakfast was put on hold.
“We spent the day with high winds gusting up to 58 knots. Now the light is fading, wind easing and weather files indicating less wind again.”