Race 2: Day 14 – The inter-changeable conditions of the dreaded Doldrums have shaken up the leader board in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race, with the Derry “LondonDerry” Doire surrendering first place to GREATBritain.
With 2,000 miles remaining of the 5,000 mile crossing of the Atlantic Ocean from Brest in France to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, the Derry Clipper is now seven miles behind the new leader.
Derry skipper Sean McCarter played his Stealth Mode card eager to claw back its place as leader of the pack but is struggling to hold on to second place as Mission Performance, which momentarily hit the front yesterday, are currently in third place are now just three miles behind.
The Derry Clipper is now 680 miles off the coast of Senegal and, despite losing the lead, Sean said a mild breeze has allowed the Derry “LondonDerry” Doire to make “steadily erractic progress” over the past 12 hours.
He added: “This may sound like a contradiction in terms but we have been making our way south, just in different directions. Sometimes we go south west, and then the wind changes so we head south east, etc.”
He said it was “still all to sail for.`’
He said: “The fleet has compressed; if we use Distance to Finish, all 12 boats are within 100 miles of each other. This is pretty amazing after 2,500 miles of ocean racing.”
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