This Monday morning, the boats, which left Alicante on Saturday, are sailing for a few more hours, on a calm Mediterranean sea, at a speed of 8 knots, with a wind of 10 knots. And at this time, one team is already leading the dance, the girls, thanks to an option at the coast during the night. Thanks to this very good move, Team SCA entered the Strait of Gibraltar first, ahead of the second team, Team Vestas Wind by four miles.
A successful strategy for Team SCA
Last night, at around 9:50 pm (HF), the team led by Sam Davies was only in the middle of the fleet. In order to take shelter from the strong current, they decided to tack to get closer to the Spanish coast. Thanks to this strategy, one hour later, these ladies were in the lead ahead of Team Abu Dhabi. Thus, they entered the strait, leaving the other crews under the blow of a southwest wind at 13 or 14 knots.
This strategy really paid off at the beginning of the night, when the gap to the competitors started to grow. At around 2am, they were four miles ahead of MAPFRE. Unfortunately, the weather conditions suddenly changed against Team SCA. The wind dropped to 11 to 12 knots and a strong current in the Strait stopped the boat and then pushed it backwards, bringing the competitors inexorably closer.
After 30 minutes, the women's team was still able to continue their progress and comfortably outrun their competitors.
