Though the start in Salvador de Bahia took place in a rather fluky wind due to a stormy zone, the breeze began to establish itself in the middle of the night and the fifteen solo sailors were able to get into a rhythm, which conformed more with the average speed of these 60 foot monohulls. The tactical choices lay in the timing of the tack change as the breeze clocked progressively round to the East in order to distance themselves from the coast to a lesser or greater extent?

Cheminées Poujoulat seems to have negotiated this dilemma well since it was in pole position this Friday morning. However, the whole fleet are now en route towards the equator, making an average of around ten knots, on a NE’ly heading close on the wind. The weather forecasts announce a shift in the breeze from the E to the NE and it is likely that the sailors will play with these shifts, in order to reposition themselves in relation to the fleet, but above all so as not to get too close to the Brazilian coast where the wind is still less steady. In this way Samantha has had a fantastic start to the race by positioning herself downwind of the fleet and the surprise comes in American Rich Wilson's third place, a position which he is not likely to hold onto for long given that the skippers more upwind like Marc Guillemot, Michel Desjoyeaux or Loïck Peyron are in a more favourable situation over the coming hours…

 

 

Meantime, after encountering problems with her gennaker furler just after yesterday's start, Dee Caffari set back out from the port of Salvador de Bahia at 1630 UTC with a deficit of 3 hours on the rest of the Imoca fleet. "A difficult start for Aviva and I. The furling line broke and I couldn’t furl the Code 0 away. I bore away to reduce the pressure but was running out of sea and heading towards land. Whilst trying to sort my problem out, the flapping sail put a tear on the foot of the Solent sail. I couldn’t see a way to solve my problems so I elected to sort my problems out with my team and re-start once I was happy.

“This meant that I started the race about three hours behind the fleet so I had my work cut out for me. I soon reefed the mainsail off the Barra Lighthouse as I was sailing upwind in 18 knots of breeze. The tacking has made the race very physical and I am still getting my trust back in the boat. So tonight I am keen to rest and sail conservatively as I get used to the crashes and bangs of upwind sailing again and be ready to up the gears in the daylight of tomorrow. It is weird being here alone!”