Yo-Yo Parade

The weather brief from our meteorologist, Fritz Koek, has been spot on so far. Simply put, the short sprint from the start, down to the virtual marks that Volvo laid to the south of Sri Lanka, would be full of geographically placed 'bands of wind' and 'bands of little wind'. From the start:

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A band of westerly sea breeze
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No wind
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A band of land breeze from the east
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No wind
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A band of 20 knots from the east, funneling between India and Sri Lanka
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Little wind on the lee side of Sri Lanka as we round the first turning mark
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And that's where we are as I write. The strategic implications of this brief?

In theory: After the first park up, in no wind, the first boats to work east and south into the land breeze would jump ahead of the fleet. Winning the first six hours would be key in this Yo-Yo race.

In fact: During the first park-up, the entire fleet was separated by only one or two miles. But two miles was all the leaders needed to then leap ahead 30 miles; they got the land breeze first and sailed away.

Yo

Time for the boats in the back to play catch up as the leaders sailed into the next parking lot. We were all separated by only a handful of miles yet again.

Yo

The leaders got south into the strong funneling wind from the east and zoomed away.

Yo

Still blast reaching at 20 knots the trailing boats caught back up to the leaders.

Yo

How many more 'Yo's' are left in this leg?

Stay tuned.

Yo