News

After the elation and excitement of the arrival of race winners, Boat No. 7 Bexhill Trust Challenger last week, all eyes have now turned to the four remaining teams still battling against the Indian Ocean conditions - and what a week its been for these four so far!

An adverse weather system, which has passed through the fleet over the past few days, has all but stopped the remaining four teams in their tracks.  For the Ocean Angels onboard Boat No. 13 ‘Pura Vida’, its been particularly frustrating and a case of so near but yet so far.

With less than 200nm to go to the finish line and second place overall in the Race, the all female crew from London have been able to smell land but despite all their efforts yesterday to prevent backwards drift, they were disappointed to see their miles to the finish increase by the end of the day, thanks to the adverse conditions.

The good news is that the wind has now swung back round to SSE, allowing the teams to begin making positive progress once again towards Mauritius.  The forecast shows that these conditions will stay with the fleet for at least the next 4 to 5 days and the current estimated time of arrival for the Ocean Angels in to Mauritius is currently this coming Sunday.

For the majority of the race, all the focus has been on the front boats and which teams would be successful in taking the top three podium positions.  However, at the back of the fleet, an equally exciting battle has been brewing for some time between the two Pairs Class Boats, Boat No. 9 ‘Southern Cross’ and Boat No. 6 ‘Flying Ferkins’.  With just over 1,000nm to go to the finish line, just 39nm separates these two teams and as they draw ever closer to Mauritius, its anyone’s guess as to which Pairs crew will cross the line first, in this sub category of the Race.

As per the news item on 29 June, there has been no new position data for Boat No.5 ‘Rowing for Prostate’ since 26 June.  Rowing for Prostate has been telephoning their position updates through to Race HQ since their tracking system ceased to work in the first half of the race.  Reported problems with charging their satellite telephone are suspected to have caused their phone to also cease working in the past week, leaving the boat without any form of long range voice communication. However, as per the previous news item we would like to reiterate that there is nothing to suggest that Rowing for Prostate has any other problems onboard that may be causing this lack of communication.  For Rowing for Prostrate, their final approach to the finish line will be stealth like and who knows, they may even creep up on the girls.

For all the latest position updates for the remaining competing boats, please go to the Progress Page on this website and for the latest races alerts, join us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/oceanrowingrace.