Leg 2 - Finish - ETA from 1030 local time Cape Town
Neck and neck fight to finish
ETA - Leg 2 finish in Cape Town - From 0830 UTC / 1030 local time in Cape Town, Sunday 12 February
This finish blog will be updated from time to time as the IMOCA fleet races towards the Cape Town finishing line.
See the latest content from the boats here
Catch the race coverage on Eurosport here
SUNDAY 12 FEBRUARY
0500 UTC --- Three teams are engaged in a fierce fight to the finish with a fourth ready to pounce on any mistake. Biotherm leads 11th Hour Racing Team and Team Holcim PRB, but Team Malizia is just slightly behind and with leverage to the south. There is just over 50 miles of racing to go and changeable conditions on the final approach.
SATURDAY 11 FEBRUARY
2000 UTC --- From 11th Hour Racing Team's Simon Fisher: "We are so close to Cape Town but the reality of the situation is that this race is far from over. I keep thinking all the miles won and lost up to this point are likely to count for very little. The forecast between here and the finish is complicated, filled with light winds and weather features that are typically poorly defined by the models. Despite hours staring at the various options, they remain just that, for answers aren’t coming any time soon."
1550 UTC --- From Will Harris on Team Malizia: "It looks like we're sailing on a lake at the moment. You wouldn't believe we're 300 miles south of Cape Town at nearly 40-degrees south latitude.. Flat water, 10 knots of wind..."
1315 UTC --- From Race Control weather guru Christian Dumard:
The latest ETA is between 0800 and 1200 UTC (10am - 2pm local time) for the first boats. The highest probability is between 0930 and 1130 UTC.
The first four boats could finish within less than one hour after nearly three weeks of racing. The ETA for GUYOT environnement is closer to 1800 UTC.
1225 UTC --- "In top gun you would call this a dogfight, a finish like this, no?!?" -- Kevin Escoffier, the skipper of Team Holcim PRB.
1200 UTC --- It's gettling slow out there as the 1200 UTC position report shows the fleet struggling to make 10 knots. All of the boats have turned to the north, a more favourable angle for boatspeed, but slightly off the layline for Cape Town. The navigators will be sharpening their pencils looking for the most efficient way to keep the boat moving towards Cape Town at a reasonable speed. All whilst keeping an eye on the opposition.
"We're racing into a wall of no wind," is they way Sam Goodchild on Team Holcim PRB explains the situation. "We're all choosing where we go into it, and then hope oyu can get through it more quickly than the others to get to Cape Town. It's probably going to be quite a close finish."
1000 UTC --- The 1000 UTC update shows this race will go down to the wire. Biotherm is now bow forward on 11th Hour Racing Team (the current leader on distance to finish) and Team Holcim PRB, who are so close together they appear as one boat on the tracker. Keep your eyes peeled to the tracker, which will switch into 'live mode' this afternoon for the final push to the Cape Town finish.
0850 UTC --- Rosalin Kuiper, Team Malizia: "It looks a bit tricky... Just before Cape Town the wind will be light and downwind. That's not our best conditions. So this is a very big day. We need to make gains now..."
0800 UTC --- It's another spectacular day in Cape Town - it's been like this for a week now. Sunny, hot, but very little wind. And this is the problem for the five IMOCA teams trying to close down the last 300 nautical miles of leg 2.
A glance at the tracker tells you all you need to know. The top four boats are all within 7 miles in terms of distance to finish. And the fastest boat in the fleet is fifth-placed GUYOT environnement - Team Europe, now just 80 miles back on the advantage line. Two days ago that delta was over 500 miles!!
Speeds are down now - in the 8-10 knot range - and this is what we can expect between now and the finish.