No clear route to the ice gate or the finish

The area of high-pressure and light winds to the south of the Class40 fleet caused an overnight stall for the entire fleet with the northern group of race leader Giovanni Soldini with Telecom Italia, Thierry Bouchard with Mistral Loisirs - Pole Sante ELIOR (2nd place), Yvan Noblet on Appart' City (4th place) and Christophe Coatnoan's Groupe Partouche (8th place) escaping the worst of this calm period. In 6th place, Custo Pol, the most westerly boat in the southern section of the fleet was first to hit the wall, recording a 1.5 knot average pre-dawn: "Not an easy night," admitted the yacht's skipper, Halvard Mabire, this morning. "Plenty of work and trimming.not much sleep." Mabire made a steep dive south yesterday and appears to have suffered most in the high-pressure with Custo Pol slipping a further 38 miles behind Soldini since Monday morning and he now trails the race leader by 108 miles. The French offshore yachtsman also admits he has limited access to satellite information with sporadic reception of the fleet's position reports and weather data: "Before the start of the race, all the electronics were not a priority and the important thing is the boat is now sailing well," Mabire said earlier. "I can deal with the weather by instinct. It's very 'old school'," he commented, on excellent form.

Mabire has 7th place Alex Bennett and Fujifilm for company in the south just 7 miles astern of Custo Pol and both skippers reported the breeze returning simultaneously during satellite phone calls to the race office at 1100GMT today with Bennett unsticking from the calm patch in 7 knots of south-westerly breeze: "We never actually stopped completely, but it was certainly very, very light for 12-15 hours," he explained. For Bennett, the light but stable breeze was a gift: "I came below last night really, really, tired for a half hour kip at the chart table and woke up 3 hours later," he admits. "The boat kept going south - which is where it needs to go - so it didn't really cost anything." After a week of demanding, close sailing, fatigue is beginning to bite throughout the fleet. "I feel physically and mentally fit and I think it's 4 or 5 days before I really start to feel it," predicts the English yachtsman. "This is one of the closest races I've done for a long time and I'm sure that sailing so close together adds to the stress."

In the middle of the north-south pack of the fleet, holding 5th place throughout the day on 40 Degrees, Miranda Merron felt the breeze arrive minutes before speaking with The Artemis Transat race office: 'We're finally moving again," she said, reporting just over 6 knots of breeze. "We didn't actually stop and there's a fair current helping us, but we didn't move much for 2 or 3 hours." This afternoon, 40 Degrees is 26 miles behind 4th place Appart' City in terms of Distance to Finish. Like Mabire on Custo Pol, Merron has had difficulties downloading weather data: "Last night, I couldn't get the GRIB file and still don't know if I can," she admitted earlier. "It's just that things you need to look at or check seem to take ages at the moment and eat into your valuable rest time." Asked if fatigue was a possible cause, Merron admits it is a possibility: "I'm not falling to pieces and I'm just looking after the absolute necessities, but I imagine that might be the case." With over 1,400 miles sailed in 10 days, most of the fleet will feel the same. "We've just got to see who is toughest," said Merron laughing.

In 11th place on Clarke Offshore Racing, British skipper Simon Clarke is certain that fatigue is a vital factor: "Now into the second week, hopefully I can stop making all the stupid mistakes of the first," he reported this morning. "Being tired certainly effects one's judgment, falling asleep battery charging is not recommended either, a great way to sail extra miles while very soundly asleep." Clarke and fellow backmarker, Louis Duc on Groupe Royer in 10th place are separated by 17 miles and Clarke's revelation yesterday of inefficiently calibrated masthead wind instruments have meant that Clarke Offshore Racing has sailed a far greater number of miles than the rest of the fleet, unable to spot windshifts and miss-timing tacks: a technical error that went undiscovered through fatigue.

In 2nd place, Thierry Bouchard has kept Mistral Loisirs - Pole Sante in the north with Telecom Italia and trails the Italian race leader by 65 miles this afternoon. In slightly stronger breeze to the north, Bouchard had a less strenuous night: "Yesterday, I worked all day and slept most of last night," he told the race office earlier. "The Artemis Transat is like a marathon and it's really important to get a good amount of rest." While Bouchard's sleep/sailing balance is impeccable, life on board became intense late yesterday. "A message to let you know that I have just run into a whale," wrote Bouchard in an alarming email. "The collision took place while I was down below eating. The bulb was embedded in the side of the whale. I went on deck immediately to see what was happening and I saw it in the middle of a pool of blood." Fortunately, this unhappy, mid-Atlantic union did not last for long. "It released itself and did not ask if it could stick around.me neither. I'm still in a bit of shock. I've made a complete check, no apparent damage, no damage to the interior of the hull and I've looked at the bulb through the port-hole.it's still there, undamaged!" This collision hardly slowed Bouchard and this morning he confirmed constant sightings of Yvan Noblet on Appart' City as the pair duel together in the northern group separated by just 8 miles.

Calling all Shipping!
Predictive weather programmes and routing software provide the Class40 skippers and The Artemis Transat race office with an insight to conditions over the forthcoming days. If the predictions are accurate, a truly challenging few days await the fleet. Wednesday may produce north-westerly breeze with the fleet running into a high-pressure system from midday and on Thursday, southwestrly-breeze of between 20-30 knots is likely. "We're going to be going from wearing a bikini to a drysuit," said Miranda Merron this morning. As for the computer's angry red arrows sweeping through the fleet in two day's time, 40 Degrees is fully prepared: "I've got the storm jib ready and I know exactly where it is," confirms Merron. "It's always sitting right on the top of things, whatever the conditions, rough or calm." Alex Bennett on Fujifilm agrees with this system: "Don't you worry about it, my storm jib is always ready to rumble," he assured the race office today.

However, the forecasting system is not a guarantee, as Thierry Bouchard on Mistral Loisirs - Pole Sante ELIOR explained this morning: "The weather files I've been receiving are all so different it's really difficult to see 2 or 3 days ahead at the moment." While Halvard Mabire and Miranda Merron are receiving infrequent meteo updates, even Boris Herrmann on Beluga Racer in 3rd place, 3 miles behind Bouchard, is finding the weather information confusing: "I've got south-westerly breeze and I'm making about 8 knots," he told the race office earlier. "I lost about 8 miles last night when I got caught in a current and made a few tacks that weren't always the optimum decision. I'm heading straight for the ice gate 450 miles away and the breeze will probably come round directly on the nose. But at the moment, I'm profiting from this breeze which wasn't predicted in my weather forecast."

The ice gate is a crucial juncture in the race - both tactically and for safety - and Herrmann gave his opinion on the waypoint's impact: "I think that whoever gets close to the ice gate first can choose how to proceed earlier and can use the weather pattern we find behind the ice gate." Beluga Racer has constantly featured in the top of the position poll rankings and the German sailor's tactics are clearly skilful. "If Soldini is there first..." began Herrmann before collecting his thoughts. ".of course, he could make a bad move, or go slow, but I don't think the ice gate will be a 're-start' for the race. It's just more open afterwards, that's for sure. It'll become really quite interesting."

Trailing Herrmann by 96 miles this afternoon, Alex Bennett has a different opinion: "To be honest, it's still anybody's race," he said this morning. "Giovanni's not that far ahead and he only has to park-up for a while and the whole game changes." The current weather models linked with routing software suggest a high-pressure system is waiting behind the gate and a park-up scenario is not far-fetched. "I am certain that the last 72 hours is going to be full-on for everybody," assures Bennett. "A big push, no sleep and we'll certainly ramp-up a gear for the final furlong."

At the moment, the leading Class40s should arrive at the ice gate on Thursday evening.

Class40 leaderboard and Distance to Leader ranking at 1400GMT on Tuesday
1 Telecom Italia 0
2 Mistral Loisirs - Pole Santé ELIOR 65.5
3 Beluga Racer 69.7
4 Appart City 73.4
5 40 Degrees 99.4
6 Custo Pol 108.5
7 Fujifilm 115
8 Groupe Partouche 118.8
9 Prévoir Vie 127.6
10 Groupe Royer 135.7
11 Clarke Offshore Racing 152.2