"The choice of route is super complicated... yesterday, we said route north, let's go crazy, last night, we said it wasn't going to work and, this morning, we're going to flip a coin!
It's not easy being tactical in this Transat Jacques Vabre Normandie Le Havre! After last week's dilemma between a descent to the South via the East or the West, and a passage through Madeira that was restrictive for some, for the past few days we've had to decide which side of the anticyclone to take.
Jules Bonnier and Robin Follin (Nestenn - Entrepreneurs pour la planète)
"The weather is as uncertain as ever for the end of this race, with a northerly option, a southerly option and why not a 'middle' option, which looks complex. We're about halfway through the race, with between 9 and 11 days to go before we reach Martinique.
The weather's fine, it's hot but not yet too hot, and the moon made its (brief) return early yesterday, which was really nice!"
Aurélien Ducroz (Crosscall)
"We kept up some good speeds yesterday and tonight. It was great despite the darkness of the night because we still haven't seen the moon since the start. It's a strange thing. It's a bit like it's disappeared. As for the rest, the weather remains a real headache. Nothing is really settled or very clear. For the moment, we're favouring VMG (Velocity Made Good: the best compromise between heading and speed) on the road. We're giving ourselves until this evening to decide whether or not to head north. It's likely to end up like that, but we're waiting until the last moment - probably this evening - to make our decision so as to be sure that no more direct route opens up. And with good reason: yesterday, the routing predicted another ten days of racing. This morning it's down to eleven. If we lose 24 hours every day, that's going to be a long time!"
Amélie Grassi (La Boulangère bio)
"We chose the south like another small group. The weather isn't easy, the files don't match up with the forecasts in a week's time, the strategic choices over the long term are very difficult, the brains are smoking! And they're not going to stop thinking as they keep an eye on our colleagues' northerly route. If it were easy to interpret this situation, we'd all be going to the same place and it wouldn't be so much fun."
Nicolas Andrieu (Alla Grande Pirelli)
"We're fighting a double battle. First of all it's a close battle of rare intensity with IBSA, with whom we've been sailing within sight of each other since Cape Finisterre, and for over a week we've been going blow for blow. A little mile lost in speed, a little mile gained on a new trajectory, we live to the rhythm of the rankings to calibrate our speed with a competitor supposedly encountering the same wind conditions. This proximity is both exhausting and highly stimulating (...)
And then there's the other battle, the distance battle with the northern group led by Xavier Macaire and his Groupe SNEF. The routing estimates that our trajectories will cross again one day before the finish, and only then will we know which option was the right one (...) The atmosphere is good, the battle is furious, and that's exactly what we came to find on this Route du café."
Nicolas Jossier and Alexis Loison (La Manche #EvidenceNautique)
"We're going flat out, it's complicated with the weather to catch up with the frontrunners, almost impossible as the weather systems are too split up, but we're doing the best we can, we're fighting, we're looking after the boat and we're going fast, we peaked at 20 knots again last night. So everything's going well. The transatlantic race is longer than expected, so we're going to have to start rationing all our food from now on. Today, it's inventory and DIY".
Emmanuel Le Roch (Edenred)
"We gybed south last night and our routing gives us an advantage to the south. It's going to be close, so we're keeping a close eye on what's happening to the north, but at the moment they're going a bit slower, which is normal. It's going to come down to the finish, so we won't know who's right or wrong until the last day of the race! In any case, we're backing the southern route because we think there are fewer risks. If the routing lags behind to the north, it will be complicated for them. So we're heading south and we'll be shifting west as soon as the weather permits.
It was a starry night but it's cloudy this morning and the weather's fine. We're better off here than our friends to the north, who have had to put their fleeces back on. We've got all our sails and all our chances until the finish."
When they're not thinking about the weather and strategic choices, everyone has their own thing to do:
Ian Lipinski (Crédit Mutuel) is doing the maths: "A quick note for our mountain friends in the sea and mountain trophy (and the others too).
Antoine and I left Lorient almost 10 days ago. We've had an average swell of 1.5 metres, based on a quick estimate. Given a 12-second period, that's a 'climb' of 7.5m per minute, or 450m per hour and 10,800m per day. So we've climbed more than 10 times the height of Mount Everest since we set off! And without oxygen!
This dubious reflection is inspired by the contemplation of the boat gliding along on the swell (too gently) as we approach the axis of the ridge of high pressure that we're trying to cross tonight...".
Erwan Le Draoulec (Everial) is enjoying his day:
"The boat is gliding along gently, which is really nice! We're going to take advantage of this slightly calmer day to do some activities that we've been missing, like taking a shower, or cooking some monkfish pasta with kari-gosse - a dish from the restaurant Le Quai in La Trinité-sur-Mer, reworked version at sea - it's going to be really good!"
Andrea Fornaro and Benoit Hantzperg (Influence 2) are testing new cooking methods:
"It's not a relaxing pace, but we're adapting. Since we've run out of gas for the jetboil, we've learnt to cook with the engine by placing the food on the hot head and it works quite well (Benoit ate a packet of Thai pork and said it wasn't bad). The forecast gives us an arrival in about 7 days... Our beloved boat is flying which is a pleasure, even if she will need some care at the end of this trip.... This morning I changed my shirt, put on some deodorant and off I went... ready to go! ready to go out!
Mikael Mergui (Centrakor)
"It's been another day of hurtling down red slopes full of powder in bright sunshine: it's a total blast to be out on the water in these conditions. From time to time, a wave comes along to refresh us and add a little more salt to our skin, which is starting not to like it so much any more. Our hands start to swell with the moisture. Pulling on a rope becomes less and less pleasant. The first irritations are making themselves known (...) The wind eased a little in the second half of the night. We're going to take advantage of this 'calm spell', as they say in the children's nursery, to check Marcel over from every angle. On the map, behind our computer, we can also see our four friends who were ahead of us as we left the Canaries. The famous northern route... "
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