Team Legato moves back into the Southern Ocean

by Barry Pickthall on 24 Feb 2001 03:00 GMT: TEAM LEGATO / WARTA POLPHARMA
Position: 42 00'S; 177. 31'W / 50 08'S; 136 35'W
Speed at time of satellite poll: 16.0 knots / 14.2 knots
Average speed for last 4 hours:12.6 knots / 16.9 knots
Course: 111 Degrees / 150 Degrees
Distance covered over 24 hours: 303.5 miles / 406 miles
Distance between the two: +1,521 miles

Tony Bullimore and his TEAM LEGATO crew have now escaped the effects of New Zealand's wind shadow and are aiming to hitch onto a deep low pressure system to carry them at high speed along the Southern Ocean Expressway towards Cape Horn.

After a few calm spells yesterday, the British catamaran is reaching along at between 16 and 20 knots - 2-5 knots more than their rivals on Warta Polpharma, and by tomorrow, Bullimore is confident that the gap between the two boats will begin to narrow.

'It is going to be tough pushing this boat hard with just 6 of us onboard, but we are all going to give it our best shot and are confident that we can catch the Poles up again.' He said today.

Leading positions at 03:00 GMT today

1. Club Med 2,973 miles to finish - Rounded Cape Horn 11.02.01
2. Innovation Explorer +880 miles - Cape Horn 12.02.01
3. Team Adventure 6,518 miles - Left Wellington 19. 02. 01
4. Warta Polpharma 6,513 miles - Left Wellington 17. 02. 01
5. Team Legato 8,040 miles - Left Wellington 21. 02. 01
6. PlayStation - RETIRED 14.01.01