It’s been great progress for "Mutua Madrileña" over the last 24 hours. Javier "Bubi" Sansó predicted that the team would soon be able to narrow the 200 mile gap with "Temenos 2", and those predictions have been fulfilled. By last night Pachi Rivero and Bubi Sansó were already getting closer, but from 10:00 GMT today the duo were the fastest in the fleet and have brought the gap with the Franco-Swiss entry down by 90 miles (167 km) between 16:00 GMT yesterday and the same time today.
"We thought we’d be able to reduce the gap more than this, but it’s been a busy night with showers, lightning and lots of shifts," commented Spaniard "Bubi" Sansó.
Set on the right course for Gibraltar, the Spanish boat continues her climb up the African coast, whilst "Temenos 2", now close to the final scoring gate, is struggling to cross the Straits given the stormy conditions beating the area, as well as the whole of Spain’s East ‘Levante’ region.
The "Mutua Madrileña" crew are expecting more benevolent conditions than those "Paprec Virbac 2" and "Hugo Boss" got in their journey through the Straits and the conditions facing Dominique Wavre and Michèle Paret: "We could get peaks of 35-36 knots as we pass through the Straits, but I don’t think we’ll get any more than that. It should then be a fairly swift climb at 14-15 knots from Murcia to Barcelona," said "Bubi" Sansó.
After more than 23,000 miles of racing the main fear among all of the entries is the possibility of suffering boat damage, or some kind of breakage at this late stage in the competition. The boats tend to feel the weight of the distance travelled, and on numerous occasions boats have been forced to drop out of a race just a few miles from a race finish because of this kind of thing. "Bubi" spoke about this today: "We won’t relax until we cross that finish line. Anything can happen out here, and it’s best to be sensible right to the end. When we’re going upwind we’ll be taking it as easy as possible on the boat, as we want to make sure everything stays in one piece."
"Hugo Boss", second
The second boat to finish the Barcelona World Race reached Barcelona this morning at around 06:30 local time (GMT+1). It’s taken 94 days, 17 hours, 34 minutes and 57 seconds for AndrewCape and Alex Thomson to circumnavigate the globe.
"Bubi" Sansó congratulated "Hugo Boss" this morning: "From onboard ‘Mutua Madrileña’ we’d like to say ‘well done’. You must be overjoyed. It’s been a really tough race for them – and there’s no doubt it’s been great training for the Vendée Globe."
Day 96 – 16:00 GMT
Position/Boat/Skippers (Nationality)/Distance from leader
1 Paprec Virbac 2, Dick (FRA)/Foxall (IRL), finished.
2 Hugo Boss, Thomson (GBR)/Cape (AUS), finished.
3 Temenos 2, Wavre (SUI)/Paret (FRA), 581 miles
4 MUTUA MADRILEÑA, Rivero (ESP)/Sansó (ESP), 779 miles
5 EDUCACIÓN SIN FRONTERAS, Escoffier (FRA)/Bargués (ESP), 2,299 miles
Veolia Environnement, Jourdain (FRA)/Nélias (FRA), retired
Estrella Damm, Altadill (ESP)/McKee (USA), retired
Delta Dore, Beyou (FRA)/Gavignet (FRA), retired
PRB, Riou (FRA)/Josse (FRA), retired