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It's grim going for Kojiro Shiraishi and Alan Paris as they make painfully slow progress towards Torbay. Kojiro is man of few words, but he obviously knows that a picture is worth a thousand words and sent us this image earlier today. It says it all. Alan Paris also checked in with an email that summed up his situation. "Hello all" he wrote. "Well I don't know how you can finish a yacht race with no wind, but there is no wind. 1 - 2 knots from varying points of the compass. Weather files continue to show 10 knots from the east after what last night should have been 15 knots from the North. It's all a lie. Kojiro and I are going about nowhere. Yesterday I made 48 miles towards Torbay. There are 193 miles to go.............Will this ever end ?? Will I make the re start ??" He then signed it Alan (slowly going crazy) Paris. We can only sit here and sympathize with their situation and hope that the wind picks up soon so that Spirit of yukoh and BTC Velocitycan come scooting on into port.

Those who have been watching the progress of these two yachts will notice that BTC Velocity has made up a lot of ground on Spirit of yukoh in the last 24 hours, and at the last poll was just 15 miles astern of the Japanese yacht. Even Alan must have been surprised to make up so much ground, so quickly, as were we, but also from Kojiro yesterday morning was the second image below.

Spirit of yukoh had been sailing for the last 12 hours with a fishing net caught around the keel! Kojiro managed to free the net and is now back up to speed.
The fishing net is not the only problem he has been having. A few days ago Kojiro noticed some strange sounds coming from his keel and upon further investigation noticed some movement in the keel area. He has not been able to pin point the problem, but he suspects that some bolts have sheered. Unfortunately he is not being able to completely get at the bolts so he can't tell if they are bent, sheered and still fine meaning that there is some other problem. As soon as he arrives in Torbay the boat will be hauled and inspected. Meanwhile the light winds will only be tormenting his mind, not torturing his boat. So please, anyone reading this.... think wind for Alan and Kojiro.

©Kojiro Shiraishi