Neutrogena crawling to Barcelona World Race finish

(March 30, 2015; Day 90) – Sunday was supposed to be the last night at sea for Guillermo Altadill and José Munoz in the Barcelona World Race, but the Neutrogena duo who are destined to finish in second are stuck in light winds within the last 30 miles of Barcelona. Altadill and Munoz are now expected around 2300hrs UTC/O100hrs local time Barcelona.

Yesterday afternoon and evening was tortuously slow for Altadill and Muñoz, periods of 1.5, 0.5, 2.0kts between four and eight pm last night, but they have worked the night breeze off the land well and in places have eked out six or seven knots of boat speed.

Off Cabo de la Nao they were 0.6 of a mile off the land. They are in the forecast SW’ly this morning around 8kts and as they get north to the Ebro valley there can be a NW’ly Mistral at 30kts for a period, but then that will die out and it can be light into the finish line.

GAES Centros Auditivos are making 12 kts in the east of the Straits of Gibraltar, just ready to gybe up to Cabo de Gata. They have, predictably, closed a few miles on Neutogena and are now 258 miles behind. Anna Corbella and Gerard Marín have just over 400 miles to the finish now and are due Wednesday 1st April around midday.

As the high pressure is moving north slightly the routing options for One Planet, One Ocean & Pharmaton and We Are Water has improved and they are now getting a more direct course towards Gibraltar. They are in the E’ly trades just 515 miles west of the Canary Islands and now they have both been lifted more towards the Mediterranean as they go. That rotation is increasing the advantage of Aleix Gelabert and Dídac Costa as We Are Water are in lighter breeze and are slower this morning. They are due at Gibraltar 6th April.

Renault Captur are in the NE’ly trade winds of 10-15kts making a good routing, expected Gibraltar 10th April.

Spirit of Hungary are in improving trade winds SE of Recife and 700 miles to the Equator. And the Doldrums still don’t look any better for them than they did yesterday.

Ranking at 18:00 UTC:
1. Cheminées Poujoulat (Bernard Stamm – Jean Le Cam) finished Mar 25 (84:05:50:25)
2. Neutrogena (Guillermo Altadill – Jose Muñoz) 30.9 nm Distance to Finish
3. GAES Centros Auditivos (Anna Corbella – Gerard Marin) 278.9 nm Distance to Lead
4. One Planet One Ocean / Pharmaton (Aleix Gelabert – Didac Costa) 1616.3 nm DTL
5. We Are Water (Bruno Garcia – Willy Garcia) 1730.9 nm DTL
6. Renault Captur (Jörg Riechers – Sebastien Audigane) 2853.5 nm DTL
7. Spirit of Hungary (Nandor Fa – Conrad Colman) 3546.7 nm DTL
Hugo Boss (Alex Thomson – Pepe Ribes) Abandon

Tracker – Event details

Report by event media.

Background: The third edition of the Barcelona World Race is the only double-handed, non-stop, round the world race. Eight IMOCA 60 teams started December 31, 2014, with the intent to cover 23,450 nautical miles in a circumnavigation from Barcelona to Barcelona, putting the capes of Good Hope (South Africa), Leeuwin (Australia) and Horn (Chile) to port and the Antarctic to starboard.