Monday: Having been third at the runway mark just after the start yesterday, 'Raging Bee' (15) stayed a bit south of the pack and ahead of it, while 'McDo' 6) remained closer to the rhumb line. Jean-Pierre Kelbert's '3D Developpeurs' developed an early lead and is going fast.
Tuesday: Space is opening up between the boats: a big move to the right by 'Raging Bee' (6) put her to the north of '3D' with 'McDo' (7) opting to move a bit further south. It looks as if there will be a stronger airflow to the south in the next few days.
Wednesday: David Lanier's advice to them is to stay close to the rhumb line and leave the north/south decision as late as possible, and that's what 'Raging Bee' has done, moving up to third position just on boatspeed.
Thursday: A gybe on to port is bringing the leaders back towards the pack, though none of the boats by this time can see any others, except on AIS: a routine for putting the engine on for an hour to charge the batteries will be keeping all the electronics going; they fitted a Sterling battery optimiser on Raging Bee, after Thierry had looked at the one on 'Aliya'.
Friday: The long port gybe back across the rhumb line has brought the leaders – '3D Developpeurs', 'Yolo' and 'Raging Bee' - back nearer to the pack, who are heading south in the hope of a stronger airstream. Having led from the start, Jean-Pierre Kelbert (Mr. JPK) has hedged his bets until now, with the next two boats in fairly close attendance.
The slackening wind on the north side of the course today and tomorrow, dictates a compromise between speed and distance until the wind picks up more generally again after the weekend, but there is only a day's sailing between most of the front half of the fleet, including Bruno and Hugues in 'McDo de Cherbourg' (14), so what happens today and tomorrow will have a considerable impact on the finishing order. In the second half of the race it is likely that '3D', 'Yolo' and 'Raging Bee' are going to want to begin to put themselves between the rest of the fleet and the finish line – now only just over 1000 miles away!
David's advice, emailed to Loulou and Thierry yesterday, was to keep south and to watch the cloud masses (of which of course they have an uninterrupted view out there!) Local conditions will play their part on the ocean as they do near land, so that there is little the base camp in Normandy can do except send their encouragement for the moment.
Attrition is taking over - already there is beginning to be a noticeable difference in boatspeed among the boats, suggesting that the wind is becoming more variable over the area occupied by the fleet, though I suspect also that some boats are taking a break for a few hours – 24 hour spinnaker legs are taking their toll! Thierry and Loulou found in preparation that a 90-minute watch suits their rhythm, so that is what they've been doing since last Sunday, and what they have to keep doing till about next Thursday...
Bonne continuation, les gars!
STOP PRESS: This email arrived Fri 1115 from 'Raging Bee':
Merci pour tes encouragements.
pour le soleil il va falloir attendre : après la baston des premiers jours
aujourd'hui c'est seulement 10N de vent, ciel gris, pluie : on se croirait à
Cherbourg !
Loulou et Titi
'baston': we might say 'pasting'..
Steve Fraser
Submitted on 30th January 2015