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(April 7, 2023) – In the northern hemisphere, it’s been tense for Golden Globe Race leader Kirsten Neuschäfer (RSA) who has been in less wind than her runner-up Abhilash Tomy (IND) for longer. However, every time it looks like she’s losing the lead, she finds the resources to grab some miles back, or clutch to the extra bit of wind to hold the lead.
The past week has been hard on Neuschäfer who has generally been in lighter weather for several weeks running, bleeding miles from her lead to Tomy, falling from 300 miles last week to 50 today. Worse, the eastern option she chose, while closer to the finish has brought an in-and-out of the doldrums scenario with more frustrating light winds and psychological trauma. But yesterday she was in fresh winds, now on a higher route at speed towards the finish in Les Sables d’Olonne, France.
The contrast with Tomy is notable. Choosing a closer route to Brazil, he had very narrow doldrums and found strong, consistent tradewinds earlier, allowing him to sail higher and faster for weeks. After several months of fixing/rebuilding equipment failures and rationing water to less than one litre a day, he is posting good speed with time to relax and hydrate…
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