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Caribbean tempo
A day and a half to go before sighting land for the first time since leaving Saint Nazaire. Tanguy de Lamotte and Adrien Hardy are comfortably in the lead of the Solidaire du Chocolat and should have be a clear half-day ahead of the three immediate followers as they pass by Saint Bart's. But the trade winds are starting to fall.
Anything can
happen at sea. In view of the conditions off the Caribbean islands at the
moment (15 knot easterly wind), it is difficult to imagine any major change in
the fleet as Initiatives-Novediamaintains its lead over Giovanni Soldini and Pietro d’Ali (Telecom Italia), Bernard Stamm and Bruno Jourdren (Cheminées Poujoulat) and Damien Seguin
and Armel Tripon (Cargill-MTTM). Another
210 miles clocked up in 24 hours for the leaders among the fastest in the fleet
thereby further increasing their lead by about 10 miles compared to yesterday. As
the wind is going to decrease as the Class 40s enter the Caribbean Sea, the
leaders cannot allow themselves to make a pitstop in Saint Bart’s. A slight
calm and all the efforts of the last two weeks to make a breakaway will be
reduced to nothing. When out in the lead, there is no letting up.
Smoothing seas
One thousand miles downfield, Patrice
Carpentier and Victor Maldonado (Crédit
Maritime) seem to have got things right since their Portuguese pitstop. The northern
course has enabled them to distance Yves Ecarlat and Lionel Regnier (Vale Inco-Nouvelle Calédonie) who headed
off further south, and have sneaked in a twenty mile gain every day. At this
rate, they may well end up closing in on British boat Mike West and Paul
Worswick (Keysource) by Thursday
evening. A nice bit of strategy. Precisely what they need to negotiate the end
of this Atlantic stretch as the trade winds are showing signs of lightening up
with a few rain-bearing cumulonimbus even appearing, with alternating gusts and
calms. This is fine for charging the body’s batteries and being able to eat
normally. But there are still 2 000 miles to go for the first boats and more
than 3000 for the tail enders.
In any event,
the fight for second place is on. The Italians and Stamm-Jourdren are sailing
in sight of one another, with Seguin-Tripon not far behind. The two British
boats Wright-Brennan (Palanad 2) and
Harding-Merron (40 Degrees) are a
little further south of the Finnish team Romppanen-Öhman (Tieto Passion) who appear to have better wind. Bit of a battle
going on also in the north between Lazat-Nouel (Plan, les enfants changeront le monde) and Card-Murphy (Orbis) against the southerners Nigon-Jouany
(Axa Atout Cœur pour Aides) and
Consorte-Aubry (Adriatech), now on
the same heading. The Caribbean landfall is not going to be that easy.
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