FOVEAUX STRAITS, New Zealand — Last reports had singlehanded Frenchman Phillipe Monnet enjoying a brisk, 25-knot breeze on the approach to New Zealand aboard the Open 60 UUNET in his attempt to circumnavigate the globe against the prevailing winds. Monnet has passed the meridian, and is more than halfway around the world, beginning his homebound leg towards Brest, France. Monnet started January 9th and after 69 days at sea, has covered 12,834 miles.
The skipper will sail through the Foveaux Straits, between Stuart Island and the southernmost tip of New Zealand, though a windshift to the southwest should have put him hard on the wind. Meterologist Pierre Lasnier has given Monnet a six-day favorable weather forecast.
After attempts to call Monnet went unanswered, it was presumed that he had apparently turned off his Iridium phone to save battery power after it appeared the satellite phone service would be discontinued. The company?s ailing fiscal plight has it tentatively planning to scrap its network of satellites, though it has offered a stay for certain customers in isolated zones until the decommissioning schedule is finalized. Monnet should be able to contact land on his other telephone, the Mini M, when his route takes him between the coast of New Zealand and Tasmania.
The skipper has been weighing the possibility of stopping to repair a running backstay which was damaged in the series of powerful lows he encountered after Cape Horn. In a radio conversation with Jean-Luc Van den Heede, Monnet metnioned that he planned to push the boat to see if the problem worsened. Van den Heede?s own earlier attempt this year to best the solo wrong-way-around-the-world record was aborted after a collision with an underwater object flooded his boat and forced him back to Chile. Monnet gave himself a 50 percent chance of stopping to effect repairs. In the last 24 hours, UUNET has logged 188 miles. Monnet has stretched his lead over record holder Mike Golding?s pace by 702 miles, or roughly five days. For additional information: http://www.70degresud.com/index_eng.cfm.