In many European countries, today is a bank holiday and it’s a quiet day too near Porto Santo. The wind has dropped right off, so the ULTIM boats are being tossed around on the northerly swell, with their 700 m2 of sail finding it hard to propel them. The leader, SVR Lazartigue remained philosophical this morning. “The wind has just disappeared completely, and we’re at a standstill. We saw that coming before the start, but it is clear that the wind is all over the place in the Northern Hemisphere at the moment. Too much for NW Europe and not enough for us, but we’re not complaining. We had a magnificent sunrise and I just caught sight of Madeira. We’re pleased to be where we are. We chose this route yesterday with our routers, while we were still managing to keep the speed up. Now it’s a matter of remaining patient.”
First in, first out?
“The die is cast,” confirmed Charles Caudrelier, lined up behind SVR Lazartigue and also searching for the slightest puff of air: “It’s quiet, but tense too. The routing always shows more wind than there is. We’re trying to go straight ahead with the autopilot, because at the helm, you’d go crazy. It’s nice to be back up with SVR, but we know that within a mile or even 200m sometime, the boat ahead can get away, while you remain stuck. She is in the more favourable position.” This opinion was shared by Armel Le Cléac’h, who was quite pleased about his little option to the west and doubts the choice made aboard Sodebo Ultim 3 to sail closer to the coast of Morocco. “We know that the ridge is moving down in latitude with us. Adding to the distance is a bit risky, while the possible advantage is far from certain. We preferred to go a bit further west than our rivals to gain a little distance,” explained the skipper of Banque Populaire XI.
Quiet, but tense
Everyone agreed that they were going to have to wait all day and maybe part of the night, before picking up a steady NE’ly wind and getting the speeds of the 32m trimarans back up to what we expect from them. They are going to have to remain alert, but no one is complaining about this short break after the wild 48 hours after the start. “We can take it in turns. It’s much more pleasant. Séb has just woken up and is getting his Ricoré (chicory) coffee ready. I didn’t even know that existed,” said Armel Le Cléac’h making fun of Sébastien Josse’s tastes. “We can now stroll around the deck right up to the bow. Yesterday we carried out a thorough check-up. We could even see the appendages. We saw a few screws missing from some plates and redid a lashing, but there was nothing serious,” explained François Gabart.
No news from Sodebo Ultim 3 this morning. They were probably too busy to chat, as they are still in the WNW’ly wind. 100 miles east of the leaders, Thomas and Thomas have made up some of the ground they had lost, but are likely to see the wind gradually drop off. “Logically, they will gybe fairly early and remain off to the east,” explained Christian Dumard this morning, but for the race’s weather expert, nothing confirms that their crossing through the ridge will be any easier than for the leaders: “A ridge is not a straight line, where everything is clear. It’s not as easy out there as when you are watching in front of a screen.” Once they have picked up the trade winds, the angle for Sodebo Ultim 3 and Actual Ultim 3 towards the Doldrums will also be less favourable…
Entering the Doldrums on 4th November
This evening or later tonight, once the ULTIMs have found some wind, they will pick up speed and will be following a ‘gull wing’ trajectory to get to the Equator. The next course mark after Porto Santo will be the islands of SaoPaolo & Sao Pedro, lost in the South Atlantic, some 500 miles off the Horn of Brazil.
The trade winds are in place from the latitude of the Canaries and their routing indicates that they should reach the Intertropical Convergence Zone on 4th November.