The Derry “LondonDerry” Doire has slipped back to fourth place in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race after what skipper, Sean McCarter, described as “another slow but bearable 24 hours.”
After a night of close racing the 12 strong fleet of matched racing yachts are over half way across the 5,000 mile Atlantic Ocean crossing from Brest in France to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.
GREAT Britain maintained its lead overnight but in the last hour was overtaken by Mission Performance with only a few miles separating the pair.
The Henri Lloyd has clawed its way back into third place, pushing the Derry Clipper into fourth spot after leading the fleet for more than a week.
Sean McCarter said despite dropping to fourth place, the Derry Clipper remained in contention for first place as there was very little distance between the leading boats.
He said: “The top half of the fleet has been playing ‘Snakes and Ladders’ while the bottom half has been constantly chipping away at the leaders’ miles. Second, third and fourth have been shared around by ourselves, Mission Performance and Henri Lloyd, sometimes with as little as 0.1 of a mile separating the positions. Incredible!”
Sean said it had been “another slow but bearable 24 hours” aboard Derry-Londonderry-Doire.
He added: “We’ve worked hard to keep moving no matter how light the winds and although we’ve hardly ever seen 0.0 knots on the log, there have been way too many in the range between 1.6 knots and 2.5 knots.”
Sean revealed the crew and taken part in “clay apple shooting” to while they make litle headway in the Doldrums.
He explained: “This involves one crew member lobbing an apple core into the air when the other crew, armed with apple cores as ammunition, shout ‘ull’!”
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