She’s fighting for every minute and mile, and that means she’s not sleeping. In other words, Little Big Mac is fried (sorry, couldn’t help myself). She’s had just 20 minutes in the past 24 hours, and not much more in the preceeding days. Getting through the Azores was a nightmare:
“Can’t believe what we’ve been through. We stopped for two hours with two knots of breeze from the wrong direction, we were so close to the island. The breeze went into the north-west and we were heading back towards the island, only 14 miles away. We’ve moved some, we’ve stopped, we’ve talked about tacking, we’ve been taking reefs out, putting reefs in, we’ve had 22 knots then we’ve had 4 knots, then 19 knots, the whole **** fight.”
Early this morning B&Q was ripping along at a stupendous 0.72 knots. Now they’re back in good southeasterly flow, but she lost about 6 hours of her precious lead on Joyon. That leaves her with a lead of 944 miles with just over 1000 miles to go. Can she sail at least half as fast as Joyon in his closing sprint? Latest report here; latest weather here. Before she finishes Ellen is going to get: light air, no air, and then a nrtherly gale which will force her to beat toward the finish. Finishing this thing is going to be the hardest thing Ellen has ever done, and it will take every ounce of guts and determination she’s got. But I still wouldn’t bet against her…
“Hello, Commanders Weather? I really don’t like the forecast. Have you got another…?”
The Earthist Chronicles 