So far, all has been going well for Franck Cammas and Charles Caudrelier, whose lead exceeds 300 miles on approach to Trindade and Martim Vaz, a Brazilian archipelago off Rio de Janeiro.
A compulsory passage point for Ultim maxi-trimarans on the road to Martinique that the Gitana Team duo will be the first to roll up during the day.
“
We are making good progress with the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild.
The sea has flattened well.
This was not the case about ten hours ago when we had a fairly big headwind.
30 knots in addition to the swell was not very comfortable… We have really nice, easy conditions ”
, savored Franck Cammas at the morning session, spinning at around thirty knots.
In a multihull it does not represent a lot of time
Franck Cammas
Authors of an almost faultless since leaving Le Havre on the most tested boat in the fleet, Aixois and Charles Caudrelier are far ahead of the latest
Banque Populaire XI
(Le Cléac'h-Escoffier, +313 miles) and
SVR Lazartigue
(Gabart-Laperche, +418). Enough to calmly approach the rest of the race. "
It's always nice to be one step ahead of our pursuers like that, it allows us to better manage things, but we must not forget that in a multihull it does not represent a lot of time, so it can come back quickly
, tempers Cammas
. We must not stop, not have a technical problem and in this case it is fine. They go quickly behind anyway and since everyone left, we don'thave not gained a thousand ”.
The co-skipper of
Edmond de Rothschild
does not expect to see Fort-de-France “
before Tuesday evening, or even next Wednesday morning.
It will go quickly to go back to Sao Paulo, but then the last three days will be complicated.
It won't be very windy so we will have to tack downwind.
It will lengthen the road for us!
"
A “small” first trimaran in Fort-de-France?
With 1,700 miles less to go and a mandatory course mark, the Brazilian archipelago of Fernando de Noronha, located much further north, the fifty-foot Ocean Fifty (15.24 meters) may be the first to cross the line. 'arrival.
This Wednesday morning, Sébastien Rogues and Matthieu Souben (
Primonial
) were still ahead but their trimaran was stuck on exiting the Doldrums (5 knots over the last 4 hours) and their lead fell to 59 miles over Erwan Le Roux and Xavier Macaire (
Koesio
) who progressed less slowly (10.5 knots).
Follow Thibaut Vauchel-Camus and Frédéric Duthil (
Solidaires en Peloton-ARSEP
, +86).
A spicy doldrums in Imoca, the Class40 not varnished
In Imoca, Thomas Rettant and Morgan Lagravière (
LinkedOut
) are still leading the way in approaching the Doldrums, with 40 miles ahead of Jérémie Beyou and Christopher Pratt (
Charal
) and 52.5 over Charlie Dalin and Paul Meilhat (
Apivia
). Insignificant differences since the dreaded zone of meteorological instability can turn everything upside down. Two years ago Beyou and Pratt entered it 120 miles ahead. To experience "hell" and finally finish 3rd in Salvador de Bahia. The battle promises to be exciting for the followers and straining for the nerves of these three shocking duos.
Very far behind, the first Class40s are slowly approaching Cape Verde. “
The conditions are rather light and things are not going to improve for the next 24 hours. We will have to cross an area of weak wind to then hope to find some semblance of the beginning of the trade winds, ”
explains Valentin Gautier, 4th with Simon Koster on
Banque du Léman
, 44 miles from the leaders Antoine Carpentier and Pablo Santurde Del Arco (
Redman
) . The rest is not very encouraging in terms of speed. “
Apparently the trade winds are very weak! According to the weather files which go quite far, but they are not the most reliable, we would have twelve days of racing left, which would put our racing time at 22 days! ”,
Carpentier announces.
For the little ones in the fleet, Fort-de-France is still a long way off.