Left out of the race for victory in the Transat Jacques Vabre since their starboard foil damage which forced them to stop in Madeira, Thomas Coville and Thomas Rouxel are no longer last among the Ultim maxi-trimarans.
1,300 miles from Fort-de-France,
Sodebo
has left the place of red lantern to
Actual
(Yves Le Blévec-Anthony Marchand).
The result of a paying northern option on the road to Martinique.
"
The idea was to cross the Doldrums early enough, in a place where it was windy, to go play with the trade winds north of this Doldrums, in a slightly stronger wind"
, explains Rouxel.
This route supposed to meet tough conditions.
The two Thomas were served.
A grain "600 km long"
“
At the end of the day (Sunday), a speck was built around us, we saw it forming on the satellite images. It was not a speck of rain like we see here, but something that must have been 300 miles, 600 km long, bigger than Brittany!
, says Rouxel.
We found ourselves in the middle of lightning in the dark night with gusts to 30 knots, it was the apocalypse! We didn't expect that at all, we spent the whole night without letting go. We both had a sleepless night, we just gave each other 50 minutes of nap since daybreak because it's a little quieter. The stress level was proportional to the gain gained.
This Monday afternoon, Sodebo is 40 miles ahead of Actual and was progressing much faster on starboard tack on her foil intact (28 knots against 17).
Arrival in Fort-de-France scheduled for Thursday.