received 15.12.08 1951 GMT
It was a tough day on the Delta Lloyd. We spent eight hours trying to get around the western corner of the exclusion zone. With only a breath of wind, we could not make headway south in the opposing two knot current. Mean while the rest of the fleet rounded the corner, and was travelling east towards an area of greater wind. Frustrating.
We are now sailing upwind with our J1, weaving in and out of rain clouds as we flirt with the exclusion zone boundary to our north. We have made six to eight miles gains on the rest of the fleet over the past two position reports so we are climbing back towards the fleet slowly. Yet we have a way to go to repair the damage that was caused last night and this morning to our positioning on the leader board.
Right now I am watching a large rain cell that has situated itself directly between us and where we want to go; east. The cell is 180 miles in diameter so sailing around it looks like a near impossibility. We would prefer to be to the north of it but it looks like we will have to find a path through its centre. This single cell will certainly shake up the standings in the fleet by the time we all emerge from it.
Matthew Gregory - navigator
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