Loïck Peyron (Gitana Eighty) was indeed suffering from technical problems yesterday, his broken mast wand enabling his rivals to come back to within a stone's throw of him. This morning however, despite the leaders being on the same trajectory, he has managed to get the upperhand again thanks to either a slightly more favorable local breeze or a wave of fatigue on the part of his pursuers... In these conditions, all you can do is to concentrate on making headway, look in your ‘rear view mirror’, recuperate from your fatigue and check your boat over in preparation for the final sprint. Prior to surfing the waves from a depression scheduled for the start of the week, the competitors will have to chose which corridor of wind to adopt of those shaping up on the horizon on Monday, off Madeira.

Bursting the bubble

Currently, the Azores high is shifting offshore of the Iberian peninsula as a depression will position itself over the Azores from Monday. The upshot of this is that the E’ly tradewinds will give way to a moderate S’ly air flow between Madeira and the Azores, but in a relatively narrow corridor. And though this Saturday shouldn’t see much change in the ranking, nor separation in the trajectories, a different strategic approach is likely to be in evidence from Sunday. The option will be to make easting by sailing closer on the wind, therefore slowing initially, in order to be able to hit the fresh wind earlier as the weekend draws to a close. However, between theory and practice, virtual and real, there are often some differences in ideas that the solo sailors must take into account in addition to the tactical aspect: is it good to separate yourself from the fleet at such a distance from the goal?

Don’t forget that the chasing pack are also providing a superb match, even if they're a day behind the leaders. Yannick Bestaven (Cervin EnR) is heading the pack but his margin for manoeuvre isn’t as great against Samantha Davies (Roxy). As for Arnaud Boissières (Akena Vérandas), the blow out of his staysail two days ago should be overly penalizing as the breeze is dropping off, but it may be that Jean-Baptiste Dejeanty (Maisonneuve) is experiencing technical problems as he has been regularly falling off the pace since exiting the Doldrums... The weekend ahead promises to be a crunch period for the soloists and the observers on shore alike as we observe a change of pace, a change of weather system, a change in strategy. In the meantime, the fleet are making northing in single file with a day of over 320 miles for the leader! Things are clearly progressing well off the Canaries and at the back of the fleet meantime, our Anglo-Saxon trio, Dee Caffari (Aviva), Derek Hatfield (Spirit of Canada) and Rich Wilson (Great American III) continue to battle on valiantly.

Night messages:

Dee Caffari (Aviva): Day Nine Report @ 2245hrs UT; Aviva GBR 111; Position 16 41.2N  29 53.6W; COG 023  SOG 11.0

“Not much has changed it is still wet and windy but at least allowing us to get north quickly. I am currently level with the north of the Cape Verde Islands. Next land mass to pass is the Canaries and then we will all be making decisions over the movement of the high pressure around the Azores. The temperature is definitely changing now with the water and the air at night. I have found my socks and boots and even my base layer.”

 

 

Rich Wilson (Great American III): “At the back of the pack, we've been trying to sail well and conservatively. Now staysail and 3rd reef in the main, off a bit in speed in the lulls, but fine in the puffs, and it takes a bit of load off the rig. We've leapt over some waves, and crashed into the troughs, with a severity beyond belief. We've full ballast tank forward to help. We're just hanging on to Derek and Dee who have done such marvelous jobs. Boat is crashing around severely and one has to be very careful moving both inside and outside the boat. It would be easy to take a tumble that could be painful.”

 

 

Sam Davies (Roxy): “Hello from a bumpy  ride in the Atlantic! Three good things have happened on ROXY since yesterday:

1. It is now cold enough to eat chocolate (I don't like melted

chocolate)

2. The wind has dropped just enough to have shaken out the second reef, so hopefully I should claw back some miles from Cervin.

3. I discovered the "Glamour" magazine that Romain had brought from France for me, I'd forgotten I'd put it on board and last night I found it - YIPPEEEE!

So, that is all from me today because I shall be occupied reading Glamour.....(more news tomorrow)” S x

Mike Golding (Ecover): " The B & G instruments have all packed up so I am just trying to change over to another processor. It has been happening for a while and then I did a big crash gybe last night and it shut down, and I have had some power problems. It is not fast, I am holding my own at the moment but that is more by luck than judgement as I am spending more time below than I'd like. The breeze has eased off a bit and I need to get more sail up, but this morning I have had no pilot and no instruments, and the helm has been lashed. It is not good."

Translation KJ