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        above image courtesy of Brenton Geach     above image courtesy of Brenton Geach  above image courtesy of Joe@Overload   above image courtesy of Trevor Wilkins  above image courtesy of Trevor Wilkins  above image courtesy of Joe@Overload 
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Tuesday 20th January 07.00 GMT - Final Day At 07.00 our position was 14 degrees 00 mins South 36 degrees 19 mins West So here we are on the final day, all set to celebrate but hey! who says we won't be flopping around all afternoon in sight of shore waiting for breeze. Slow night many sail changes not even the last kung po chicken freeze dried dinner could lessen our frustration. In the last 24 hours we covered 330NM in a straight line. By normal standards a stunning day given only an average wind speed 10 knots and hopefully more than enough to hold Rambler at bay. At yesterdays 0700 sched we were 215NM ahead but not quite enough to beat her on handicap. Our current ETA is 1700 GMT but who knows what lies ahead. Please check our website either this evening or tomorrow morning when we will post the press release confirming finish times and relevant details. As for us it is a sad day. No more magical sunsets, no more awesome sunrises, return to the press and appalling daily news to say nothing of the weather. An enormous thanks to ICAP our sponsor who have followed this race with daily input and interest. This race has been a wonderful start to a busy year. Our modifications have proved to be hugely successful and the boat is definitely faster. Hopefully this is the first of many new records we aim to set this year including a repeat crack at improving on our North Atlantic record, defending our Fastnet time, the Middle Sea race out of Malta in October and culminating in some unfinished business, the Sydney - Hobart. From me, Chris, and all the crew with best wishes to Sam Davies, have a great week, enjoyed having you with us. I am off to the beach! Mike Monday 19th January 08.00 GMT - Day 10 At 07.00 our position was 16 degrees 01 mins South 31 degrees 07 mins West With a little over a day to go the end is in sight. Our computer tells us we will arrive Tuesday afternoon. It would be nice to arrive before midday giving us a total race time of under 10 days but we will be thrilled to establish a new record for the South Atlantic. In 2006 a catamaran Adrenalina Pura completed this race in 10 days 8 hours and 2 minutes to create a new multihull record and the monohull Windsong set a monohull record of 16 days 2 hours 46 minutes. To confuse things further in the 2000 Cape Town – Rio race (65 miles less than to Bahia) Zephrys 4, an 86 foot maxi, set a record time of 12 days 16 hours and 49 minutes. So at 0700 we reported our position as 16 01 S 31 07 W leaving us 465NM to go having covered 344NM over the water and 338 NM towards the mark. From this you can gather we are now sailing a straight line; true wind angle of 135 degrees average boat speed 14.5 in average 13 knots of breeze. We really need a 400NM day to beat the ten days. Big thanks for lots of e-mails. We have a winner of yesterdays Questionaire it was indeed Jeremy Robinson who displayed inordinate excitement at the proximity of the valiant Sam Davies as she battles her way to maintain her brilliant fourth position in the Vendee Globe. Me thinks there is a story here! A leopard mankini goes to a star British yachtsman Ian Roman. The other excitement of the day was the pastoral pursuits of the Revererant Rupert Agnew who delivered a greatly uplifting sermon as he conducted matins at midday for the yachts company. Much fire and brimstone and much ammunition for bar talk in the future. Our thanks to our South African crew members for their rendering of the shosholoza theme song. I think I am going to miss the porridge! Mike Sunday 18th January 08.00 GMT - Day 9 At 07.00 our position was 18 degrees 59 mins South 26 degrees 01 mins
West It’s early morning and time for Sunday’s update. I trust you are all having a warmer weekend in the UK. The days slip by and we are still fighting hard to beat the ten day arrival time Tuesday 1200UTC but it is looking more likely Tuesday evening. At least the bars will be open. The consistency of the weather is amazing. We are still sailing at 140 true wind angle @14 knots of boat speed in 13 knots of breeze. The good news is that from now on we are sailing a direct course of 120 degrees to Salvador. ie no more angles. Over the last 24hrs we covered 336NM over the water giving us 284nm towards the finish. Most of yesterday the breeze was light (9 knots) and we made a number of tactical gybes to stay in the best of the wind. Hopefully we have done better than Rambler who would be favoured in this lighter air but I would be disappointed if she was not at least 70nm behind us which would give us a 5/6 hour margin worst case. We still have 780nm to go and it is all to play for. What wouldn’t I give for a 20 knot breeze and a 400 mile day. Congratulations to Murray Robertson (Australia) who correctly answered the recent ICAP Leopard Times question – “who was named the daftest man in Britain?”. It is of course our hot shot driver Gordon Maguire known as “Gorgeous Gordy” – albeit 20 yrs ago. The Star newspaper ran the story of how Gorgeous dumped the beautiful Jo Guest (her of page 3). We will be sending Murray a Leopard mankini from Brazil (size Large as requested) to accommodate his enormous gusset. Great excitement as we hooked up with the beautiful Sam Davies currently 1500Nm to the south of us still bravely in fourth position in the Vendee Globe single handed around the world race. The ICAP Leopard Times Question for the day is to name the crew member aboard Leopard who became most excited by her proximity. Is there a story here? All our best wishes Sam. The Reverend Rupert (Murdoch) Agnew is to hold a Sunday Matins at midday to be attended by all crew. We will sing the hymns “ for those in peril etc…” ( most appropriate) and Jerusalem and Joey (South African!) will solo Shosholoza. We are all concerned to hear the theme chosen by Reverend Rupert for his sermon. See tomorrows update for details. Thanks for all your e-mails and to cousin Jo for the Chelsea result. Keep them coming. Mike Saturday 17th January 08.00 GMT - Day 8 I gather the stock exchange last week was pretty bloody awful. (Congrats
to Bill Gair on the planning consent in Cambridge.) A day for celebration
on Leopard however as she is about to sail her 20 000th NM since her launch
in June 07. Have a great Saturday. Who are Chelsea playing? Please send result. Mike Friday 16th January 08.00 GMT - Day 7 At 07.00 our position was: 20 degrees 07mins South 15 degrees 43 mins West Breeze SE Force 3, overcast. Now the hammer comes down. Taking no prisoners. Crew well fed, well rested and up for it! Yesterday at midday we received the 24 hour position scheds which showed us 80nm ahead of Rambler and some 20nm to the south. As of Wednesday we are now experiencing lighter breeze and at least for another day we remain sailing angles downwind, ie VMG down wind sailing. As we explained previously this means that we have to sail a greater distance over the water and the figures for the last 24 hrs were 374nm sailed but only 295nm towards Salvador. Current wind speed is some 15kn from 140 degrees and we are sailing a true wind angle of 145 degrees. We have to be very careful over the next 24 hrs as these conditions ideally suit Rambler who are narrower and much lighter than we are. As usual we await midday's publication of today's 0700 scheds and hopefully we have maintained our 80nm buffer. The crew are getting de-mob happy. The ICAP Leopard daily newspaper, motto "res in via habitant in via" pigeon Latin for "what goes on tour stays on tour" covers a number of news items including much trivia. So the Fat lady has not yet started singing. We are going to have a great day and hope you do to. Mike Thursday 15th January 0700 GMT - Day 6 Our Position: 23 degrees 52mins South 10 degrees 52 mins West Oh no not another bowl of porridge! What ever happened to the picture on the front of the box of a hairy scott in a skirt tossing a caber? Thanks to all of you for your messages. We are thrilled that so many are sailing with us. In the last 24 HR we covered over 400NM on the water moving 343NM closer to Salvador. I am sure most of you understand that when gybing down wind we have to sail angles. To be sailing consistently 400+NM a day is phenomenal. So far the weather gods have been on our side. Cloud cover yesterday and today give some respite from the heat. Currently sailing at 17 knots average in 14/15 knots of breeze still carrying the huge A-4 kite, staysail and full main. We saw 28 knots of wind speed during the night with our boat speed also peaking at 28 knots. Not much sleep. All waiting anxiously for the scheds this morning as we are hoping to increase our lead. Big celebrations at lunch time today we are beyond the half way mark. I am going to splash out on a freeze dried Kung Po Chicken dinner! Keep the messages coming. Mike Wednesday 14th January 0723 GMT - Day 5 Hi There, Day 5 and still very much alive. A muddle up at the Royal Cape Yacht Club means that we are still in the dark as to where Rambler are? None of yesterday’s position reports (which we are required to send into the race organisers daily at 07.00 GMT) have been relayed to the fleet. Some say ignorance is bliss but it would be more fun if we knew how we were doing in terms of line honours and IRC handicap. We live in hope that we will know more at midday. We are happy to encourage any questions about the race, the crew, the yacht etc… Don’t hesitate to e-mail info@leopard3.com and your queries will be passed on to us. This avoids clogging up our system. We have now covered 1287NM at an average speed of over 14 knots towards the finish. As you will know by now our actual distance sailed is greater by a further 100nm sailed as we hunt for the wind. It is interesting these average speeds are similar to our Fastnet record run of 14.3 and only just short of our north Atlantic record of 15.1 knots. Not quite certain what that tells us but it keeps the mind busy off watch or are we loosing the plot? So with 2013 NM to travel and God willing Rambler rumbling along behind we have an ETA of another five days. For yottie cognoscenti we are currently steering 280 doing 17 knots of boat speed in 14.5 knots true wind speed at a true wind angle of 135 degrees. With full main and A-4 asymmetric spinnaker which is 950 sqm (how many tennis courts is that?) add the spinnaker staysail set inside and we have a total of 1575 sqm in the air. Beginning to smell the caipirinhas... Looking forward to day 6. Mike Tuesday 13th January 0835 GMT - Day 4 Hi There, Yesterday soon after we sent in the report the wind filled in and we were off again to meet the front we have been aiming at for the past few days. To get to the front we had to sail upwind in 18-20 knots, the type of conditions this boat loves it was truly champagne sailing in bright sunshine and crystal clear blue water. We met the front at around 1800UTC and the sky went dark grey with rain – just like the North Sea! Eventually the wind freed us up throughout the night and we were able to head back onto course at rapid pace sitting on 20-25 knots of boat speed, it was pretty uncomfortable for the first eight hours due to the left over swell and a new wind direction resulting in lots of banging and crashing. Life on board is now into a solid routine four hours on deck in full foul weather gear and 4 hours down below for some rest and top up on some calories. We have discovered freeze dried porridge. As the saying goes "if the bottom is falling out of your world eat porridge and let the world fall out of your bottom" – traders take note!! The boat is behaving beautifully and all of our modifications are paying dividends giving us extra speed under more control in heavier conditions. It will be interesting to see how we have done against our main competition Rambler throughout the night, we have been pushing hard so we feel confident. We are now close to one third of the distance (1100NM). Over the next 24 hours we hope to average 15-20 knots of boat speed, we could even maintain this speed for the next 2000NM – well inside record time. Hope your markets are holding up. Mike Monday 12th January 0730 GMT - Day 3 Morning all! We received the position update from the South Atlantic race office at midday yesterday which showed every yachts 0700 position on the water and corrected for handicap. This showed us after 19 hrs to be 12 nm ahead of Rambler on the water with Rambler almost an hour ahead on IRC handicap. With 2755NM to Brazil and a number of weather transitions to come there is plenty of hard work to come. Yesterday morning at the same time we were rocketing along at 25+ knots of boat speed and here we are this morning struggling to get more than two knots of boat speed as we try to cut through a ridge of high pressure and light air to get into the stronger southerly flow to the west of us. There is no gain without pain, we have made a choice to sacrifice early miles in order to be the first into the new breeze. The question on everyone’s lips is where is Rambler right now? We will find out when the race office publish everyone’s 0700 reports. Life on board has been hectic so far with endless sail changes as we change gears for the varying wind conditions. Thankfully our up market freeze dried food is proving popular and keeping spirits high. Our water maker is busy as the weather is getting hotter and hotter...at least we can have showers to keep cool! Have a great Monday. Mike Slade Skipper Sunday 11th January 0730 GMT - Day 2 What a spectacular start to the Heineken South Atlantic yacht race in up to 30 knots of wind yesterday. We had a planned and conservative start to ensure we did not get tangled up with any of our competitors. We were happy to let our main competitor Rambler lead us around the offset mark 1.3NM from the start and we then took lead from then on. Heading NNW in up to 30 knots of wind for the first 12 hours as we covered 254 nautical miles. By dusk we had lost Rambler over the horizon and we now await with interest for the daily schedule to see what her position is. Has she gone West or East of rumb line? Our current course is 340 degrees ENE of rumb in 14 knots of wind with 1600 square metres of sail flying giving us a speed over ground of 16 knots average. Fresh food finished and now onto the freeze dried. Distance to go 2998nm. Roll on Brazil. Tune in for our next update tomorrow..... Mike Slade Skipper
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