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Iberian confluence
After the fast gale occurred during the night of Monday to Tuesday, the situation is clearly better now in the Biscay Bay : the wind has now turned North-West, 12-15 knots, the sea quieten, the sun is back and skippers can solve the little problems of the night. This Tuesdau afternoon, seven solo sailors are in a harbour or on the way for a technical stopover and three others are might quit.
Officially, Didier Le Vourc’h (Vecteur Plus), Pierre-Yves Lautrou (Téo Taket), Marine Chombart de Lauwe (Esprit 93) have announced their withdrawal when arriving a French harbour on this Tuesday. Pierre Brasseur (Peintures Ripolin), Marie Christine de Brugière (Lady Jim), Daniel Vodikca (CK Fisher), Stéphan Bonvin (Marcel for ever), Nacho Orti (Intrepid Project Valencia) and Hugo Ramon (Emotion Saling Team-Aspanob) have changed their course for a stopover. The gale certainly has not been really strong, but it has been very fast, which has generated a tough and chaotic sea for a few hours last night, and this did not really help the solo sailors who already had some technical small damages or were not completely ready.
For the sixty Minis who are still on the way to the Azores, this Tuesday afternoon has been the opportunity to rest a little bit with a sea which slowly flattened (the waves were until four metres high during the night of Monday) and a wind that slowly has turned North West dropping as boats getting close to the Spanish coasts. Main concerns for the solo sailors after two days of race are, first of all sleeping, drying the clothes and the inside of the boat, eating a substantial meal, checking up the boat. As the course is straight, the wind is stabilizing and the situation tends to a general easing of the sailing conditions, they might take benefit of it…. But not too long, for not risking to be dropped at the North West headland of Spain.
The Spanish ladle
The Cape Finisterre should then be relatively easy to pass and it should represent the most delicate passing to negotiate before the Azores archipelago. Indeed, the different options taken on Monday make the courses almost compulsory : the “Southers” such as Jean-Marie Vidal (Jason) followed by a pack of production boats including Romain Vidal (Bingo), Dominik Zurrer (Ubik 245), Alexis Hupin (Manu Poki)… will without doubt land on the Estaca de Barres headland and then skim the Iberian cliffs. This course might be excellent if the wind turns North or even North East less than 10 knots in the area, as forecast, because there is often a Ventury effect off La Coruna, which accelerates the flood…
Jean-Marie Vidal, former figarist who has won twice the “Solitaire” knows very well this phenomenon and the course he takes let us think that he tries to take benefit of it to make a “ladle”, a curving curse to come back to the outposts by the way down ! Ranked in the twelfth position on Tuesday afternoon, we would not be surprised to see him in the second position on Wednesday morning, just behind the Slovenian Andraz Mihelin (Adria Mobil Too). This latter leads the pack with already ten miles ahead the Belgian Peter Laureyssens (Ecover), Adrien Hardy (Brossard), David Sineau (Bretagne Lapins), Isabelle Joschke (Degrémont)… who all have joined on a similar course after the front.
Regarding the production boats, the gaps are not significant between the first ten, even more ! Except Hervé Piveteau (Jules) Antoine Debled (ADD Modules) and Grégory Magne (20 minutes) who are really North and the « Southers », the pack is dense in the centre of the Biscay bay with a speed over six knots, heading South West. With boats having exactly the same potential, unlike the prototypes which are more or less built for crossbeam wind or light weather, the difference can only come from being “on the deck” all night long….
”White” night for black moon
Because more offshore than the Vidal family, this “Minis group” will also face lighter winds during Tuesday night, as they are supposed to pass the longitude of the Cape Finisterre in the end of the morning. Behind these last hills before the Azores archipelago, a North East flood is establishing, which means that the first one who will pass the Iberian peninsula will very fast sharpen the gap with the pack of the fleet. Tuesday night will then be very soliciting as there is almost no moon, the wind is going to lighten and become relatively variable in strength and direction. Solo sailors thus have to think about spending a sleepless night to increase the gap or reduce their late. Especially between midnight and the sunrise, time when the eyelids tend to fall if one’s hasn’t slept enough in the afternoon. Besides, temperature changes generate little winds that are welcome but often unpredictable : if the solo sailor is not on the deck at this moment, he can lose some dozens of miles….
DBo. & AM.
 mercredi 2 août 2006
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