Nine hundred miles due east of Boston is a patch of very calm ocean. If you were a seagull flying overhead you would see a small red boat drifting in circles and a man pacing the deck muttering to himself. The pacing man would also be trying to kick himself as he berated the wind, the forecast and most of all himself. There is nothing quite so frustrating as a tactical move that looked good on paper turn to porridge, while your arch competitors sail away to the north. "Things are not good out here this morning," Joe said in a satellite phone call. "In fact things are real bad." Aside from the lack of wind, the numbers on paper show the real story and it's not great for Joe on Wells Fargo - American Pioneer. Overnight Kip Stone on Artforms extended his lead to 106 miles, while Frenchman Jacques Bouchacourt aboard Okami moved into second place, 26 miles ahead of Wells Fargo - American Pioneer.
"I have decided that I can't pass Kip by following him," Joe explained. "He seems to have a boat speed advantage once we are in the same conditions so instead of following his course last night I decided to head south. It was not a move of desperation. The weather chart showed decent breeze to the south, but the wind slowly got lighter and now this morning there is nothing. Not a puff." To make matters worse the latest forecast shows the windless region stretching for miles and not offering any hope for a good weekend.
Despite his lousy predicament and harsh self-assessment, Joe's spirits were up. "It's easy to forget how lucky I am and how spectacular it is out here," Joe said. "It's Friday morning, usually one of the toughest commutes from my house north of Boston to my office downtown Boston. Instead of sitting in gridlock on the highway I am sitting on a calm, but beautiful ocean. How bad can that be?" One of the keys to being a successful solo sailor is to realize early that the tables can turn very quickly. Joe's bad luck today could be Kip's bad luck tomorrow. 400 miles of latitude separate Wells Fargo - American Pioneer from Okami and they will be sailing in completely different weather patterns. Should the breeze fill in to the south Wells Fargo - American Pioneer could soon be back in the lead. "I have no intention of giving up," Joe said. "I screwed up and I have learned a lesson, but that only makes me want to push the boat harder. If I get a small break I know that I can make back the lost miles. There is still a long way to go to Boston and I intend to fight every mile of it." At the last poll Wells Fargo - American Pioneer was 925 miles from the bar at the Boston Harbor Hotel. It's going to be a long and frustrating weekend.
- Brian Hancock (great.circle@verizon.net)
