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The big question during the night would have been ‘who is in and who is out of the Doldrums?’. In any case, they were kept busy approaching the Equator. Happy to see the sun rise, everyone was busy looking at the horizon this morning. “I can see some masses of cloud behind us and ahead some small cumulus clouds indicating that the trade winds are there. We picked up the wind an hour ago. It’s not from the angle we were expecting, but I am feeling hopeful,” said Thomas Rouxel this morning. A few minutes later, Anthony Marchand joked about the uncertainty you face in the Doldrums. “We have never been so close to the exit. That doesn’t mean much, but it’s something Thierry and I keep telling ourselves. We still have quite a few squalls and we are fighting hard to get a few metres further south. It is easier in daylight, when you can see the squalls than when it’s dark at night.”
While for these two ULTIM boats, the struggle is not yet over, for the three frontrunners, the SE’ly trade winds are already present and it is a different sort of sailing now. They still have to remain vigilant when driving these boats, but can get some rest after a more complicated night than was expected late yesterday, when everyone thought Banque Populaire XI was already on her way out: “The corridor we chose with Marcel (Van Triest, the router - editor) did not look very active and everything was going well until yesterday evening. But as often happens, the Doldrums suddenly appeared. We could see they were becoming more active with huge clouds forming in just a few minutes. The route ahead was blocked and we went from 25 knots to 4 or 5 knots, which was a huge change,” explained Armel Le Cléac’h this morning before returning to his bunk to get some well-deserved rest. In addition to the tiring manoeuvres, there was the stress of seeing their rivals get closer behind Banque Populaire XI: “The Doldrums strengthened and tended to move southwards, which wasn’t very helpful for us,” added the leader. “We gradually made our way towards the south, but when we were only doing 4 knots, we had to work hard, as we could see the others catching us. We even had Gitana 17 on the AIS, but when we were getting out of a complicated area, they were just entering it.”
Back to within 25 miles of the leader, Charles Caudrelier and Erwan Israel must have felt more hopeful for a while during the night, but at two this morning, luck ran out for them. Not only did they see Banque Populaire XI extending her lead and making her way out of this zone, but they also got overtaken by SVR Lazartigue, having a good night off to the West. In third place yesterday, 160 miles behind the leader, the blue trimaran is back up to second place this morning 105 miles behind te leader. Tom Laperche could not hide his pleasure of leaving the Doldrums behind, as they were “much easier than two years ago.” Sounding bright, François Gabart’s co-skipper explained that they had had a complicated night, but no sudden stops: “We had a lot of squalls with lots of wind or very little, but we never came to a halt. We did most of the crossing through the Doldrums under J1, which is the best all-round sail and overall, things went well.”
The ULTIMs are now approaching the halfway mark, marking the start of another chapter in this Coffee Route with the frontrunner getting a decent lead, but having to remain focused: “We made a gain in comparison to the situation when we entered the Doldrums. That’s great, but we are taking it one step at a time. We haven’t yet sailed half the course, but are pleased to have done a lot already,” concluded Armel Le Cléac’h.
The 1000-mile stretch to Ascension Island will involve upwind sailing in moderate winds, a point of sail and wind speed they have not really seen since the start. After a week of racing, the fleet seems to be closer together than most people were expecting at the start. The battle is still at the highest level, showing us just how far these boats have come and how determined their crews are.
