It's light up front... it's light at the back! Whilst the frontrunners are making Cape Finisterre, which they are set to reach early this afternoon, the breeze has seriously dropped off after a great day’s sailing yesterday: over 380 miles were covered by Loïck Peyron (Gitana Eigthy) in the space of 24 hours! But here we have it: the high pressure zone is still causing trouble as it shifts from Spain towards France today, then towards England tomorrow and Scandinavia this weekend. This is creating a barrier, which is protecting Europe by blocking the series of whopping Atlantic depressions stemming from Newfoundland... In this way, only those skippers who have made it to the outskirts of the Azores can benefit from a S’ly air flow, from the archipelago as far as the Iberian peninsula. For the backrunners, it's a meteorological slump: no tradewinds off the Canaries and light, shifty wind to the South of the Azores due to some windless zones… In short, the frontrunners will be slowed down off Spain, whilst the pursuers will make a comeback on the head of the fleet. The duo Davies-Bestaven will hit some downwind conditions this Wednesday but the backrunners will really be labouring as they struggle to climb up to the archipelago!

This Wednesday morning, the head of the Transat Ecover-BtoB is still making headway at around a dozen knots of boatspeed in about a dozen knots of S'ly. Rounding the Spanish headland to enter the Bay of Biscay is not going to be a picnic though! The breeze will ease and back progressively to the SE as it fills in again, once they reach the longitude of La Coruña. A burst of speed is scheduled tonight then, but daybreak in the middle of the Bay of Biscay tomorrow promises to be particularly fresh with the temperature similar to that of the roaring forties! Will there be an opening there for Kito de Pavant (Groupe Bel) and Michel Desjoyeaux (Foncia) ? Difficult to say as the only real opportunity to be had today lies in this transition phase. From there, once hooking onto the SE'ly air flow, they must go straight on in a steady beam wind... No options then other than pure speed at the moment, Loïck Peyron not losing any of his potential. The second place is very much open on the other hand, since the two sailors vying for a podium finish are neck and neck, around fifty miles from the leader.

For the next stage of the race, Yann Eliès is beginning to stretch away from Marc Guillemot (Safran) and the fact that the keel of the latter is locked along the axis will be more of a handicap when crossing the Bay of Biscay than Generali's lack of large headsails. Bernard Stamm (Cheminées Poujoulat) is already too far back to hope to make a comeback whilst there's an intense match between Samantha Davies (Roxy) and Yannick Bestaven (Cervin EnR), as well as between Arnaud Boissières (Akena Vérandas) and Jean-Baptiste Dejeanty (Maisonneuve). As for the three Anglo-Saxons, 1,000 miles behind the leader, the situation is far from relaxing! Managing to make northing whilst making 1 to 8 knots of boatspeed isn’t exactly a morale boost… At this pace, they’ll need a good day to hook onto the S’ly winds of the Azores but at that point they’ll be able to relish the surfing conditions for 24 hours. The finish promises to be a lot less appealing though, with upwind sailing in an E’ly wind in the Bay of Biscay… Good luck!

Night messages

Samantha Davies (Roxy): “Hello. It is extremely frustrating, in race terms, where I am right now. Everyone in front of me is speeding off to the finish in a different weather system. I am stuck in the transition of no wind, and everyone behind is catching up! Luckily I have my friend Yannick Bestaven to keep me company! Roxy has been slipping along gently all day, but the wind has been slowly decreasing. At sunset, we were almost stationary. However, everything around me is so amazing, that I can easily forget the stress of the race. The sky is so crystal clear that you can see for miles and miles, so far that you can see the tops of the clouds that are way beyond the horizon. Roxy is sailing like a dream, with the code 0 up, and a little keel to leeward, she slips along at 3 knots in only one knot of wind. Then, after sunset, I was inside the boat at the computer and I could hear the little squeak of dolphins chatting to each other. So I went on deck. The slither of the moon had already disappeared and the night was black, but I could sea streaks of light in the sea like little torpedos. The dolphins played alongside Roxy and I perched on the edge of the deck to get as close to them as possible as they popped up to breathe next to me. It was just one of the many magic moments that are so precious and will stay in my memory for ever. As always, the dolphins were a good sign, and the wind started to increase, and now I've even got the keel up to windward! Maybe there's a way out of this trap after all! Good night. Sam x”

 

Dee Caffari (Aviva): “Day Thirteen Report @ 2216hrs UT; Aviva GBR 111; Position 30 06.0N  27 51.8W; COG 003 SOG 10.5

My boat speed has increased but that has taken all day to make happen. I am relieved to see I am not alone and unfortunately I think we will be seeing another day of fickle shifty light breeze before we clear this high pressure and its associated little wind holes. Then we may be able to concentrate on sailing towards home. The guys at the front are romping home and it is awesome to see. One of these days I will make it across the finish line in time for the party.”

 

Derek Hatfield (Spirit of Canada): “Hello from Spirit of Canada - 11th Dec 2007

The wind is back which does wonders for my motivation. No wind is stressful. I’m really missing that genoa now though as we are going upwind in 10-12 knots. The boat is not fully powered up but moving along well at between 6 & 10 knots upwind. I have the gennaker and spinnaker at the ready, if ever we get some downwind work. The weather files show at least two more days of this light air and then possible some sailing directly towards Port La Foret and the finish. It will be good to get this race over with and start working on the long list of improvements that we can make for the Vendee Globe. As I mentioned, this race has been a steep learning curve. I had an email from little Jack today (his mom actually); I guess they talk about Spirit of Canada and this race over dinner each night; and Jack had this question: “why is he going so slow?” I wonder that myself Jack but here is my answer: “tell Jack that if I could get it to go any faster be assured I would, I don't want to be out here any longer than I have to. (I miss Sarah too much). Unfortunately the autopilot that steers the boat has some work issues and doesn't do a very good job. He/she has turned the boat around a number of times when I've been sleeping and the result is broken equipment. Also, I don't have all the sails available now in some wind ranges due to damage to the forestay, so the boat is not performing at its best. AND, I need more practice. Otherwise, everything is fine on board. I have a leak in the ballast system that requires bailing about five buckets a day from the engine compartment, but otherwise we are ok. Take Care; Derek”

 

Bernard Stamm (Cheminees Poujoulat): “I thought I’d got free of the light stuff when, at around 10-11 last night, the wind began to drop off dangerously. Suddenly, after a switch across to port and the hoisting of the big spinnaker during that time, we got three little hours of 16-17 knots of wind. Quite a lot of manoeuvres last night then but this time I am definitively in a S'ly air flow, out of the reach of the pernicious calm. Clearly with the wind, all the conditions have changed. The skies have clouded over and the seas have changed colour, to the blue is added quite a bit of grey. Welcome to autumn as we await the winter in two days time. Aboard Cheminies Poujoulat, all is well and we're sailing carefully. Have a good day. Bernard”

Translation KJ

Translation KJ