© Virbac Paprec
The last boat to emerge from being stuck fast in the Straits of Gibraltar was Hugo Boss early this morning and this afternoon Andy Meikeljohn (NZL) and Wouter Verbraak (NED) had the powerful IMOCA Open 60 fully powered up as the joint fastest of the fleet, making nearly 14 knots. And they had made some 40 miles on the leaders over the course of today. But they look set to encounter light winds again as the high pressure in front of expands slightly east.
As Barcelona took to the streets in their tens of thousands, enjoying the huge fiesta, so too for the Spanish skippers of the fleet, the mood was at least upbeat if not completely party mode. Dee Caffari (GBR) and Anna Corbella (ESP) showed off their booty of presents on today’s live videoconference, including matching named hats from their shore crew, but the British-Spanish duo were even more content to be absolutely in the heat of the ‘race within the race’. While the girls had hats and a toy puppy, for Renault ZE Sailing Team’s duo it was sweets and sunhats.
Only five miles separate this little group, and three different boats have lead this pack over today Spain’s Iker Martinez and Xabi Fernandez – the Olympic stars on Mapfre, the IMOCA debutants Boris Herrmann and Ryan Breymaier on the 2004 build Neutrogena and most recently the hugely experience Jean Le Cam (FRA) with Bruno Garcia (ESP) on Président.
For them with closer to 30 knots of SW’ly breeze at times, and the awkward pre-frontal seas – swell from the west crossed by wind driven waves from the SW, the bumpy conditions were not east, but for all of them fresh memories of the windless days of the Straits made such conditions a blessed relief.
While the leaders are tracking south to pass downwind close to the west side of Madeira, it will be not be as straightforward for this group who are giving chase. They will likely get to the frontal shift later this evening. Then they need to start thinking of they want to try to squeeze to leeward of the islands and risk the wind shadow from the islands, or whether to try to get out to the west of the islands, in which case they stand more chance of running into the light winds of the expanding high pressure earlier. A dilemma for the gang of five which may well split them up?
Quotes:
Ryan Breymaier (USA) Neutrogena:“It’s fine, it’s a bit wet now but better than it was. We have 22-24 knots of breeze on the wind. It is still OK on board, conditions have not gone super rough yet, everything is pretty easy, but certainly going outside on deck is a full foul weather gear experience at this point.”
“In summary our first week, the beginning of the week was great, the middle absolutely terrible and now we are just pushing as hard as we can to try and stay ahead of the three boats who are just behind us. They are newer boats and probably faster on this point of sail, and so we are just trying to stay ahead of them until it goes lighter again in a few days.”
“I would say that as far as our expectations go we are capable of doing well. We did well in the Mediterranean and now we are sort of where we expected to be in general, the bats ahead of us are all very good. It is going to be very hard to keep up with them.”
Dee Caffari (GBR) GAES Centros Auditivos:”We are upwind, a little bit bumpy, a little bit wet, and we are going to the west. We got the hats as presents because we are both very good girls. We obviously have been very good because we have a lot of presents. We have the hats with our names and the names of our team, just in case we forget who everybody is. We are going to be away for a long time.”
Dee: “We have presents from the team. It’s a Spanish thing and I had Christmas. We have a new addition to the team, a gorgeous little puppy to keep us company because we don’t have Jack (Dee’s spaniel) and Piula (Anna’s golden retriever). Anna has a sun hat for the tropics.
Anna: “ I am wishing to put my hat on and we have a bit of coal for the bad things we have done, but only a little bit.”
Dee: “ We worked pretty hard with Neutrogena to get out of the Mediterranean, and the others behind came out quite quickly. They have been chasing us down all night and they are uncomfortably close. We can see Neutrogena, we can see them all the time. The position reports are in and we are all doing the same thing, pushing really hard. They are chasing us and we are feeling a little uncomfortable.”
Iker Martinez (ESP), Mapfre:“The group of five we have has been formed. We have each other in vision for two days. So we have been sailing within sight of each other. That lets us see the manoeuvres the other boats were doing and maybe this keeps the pressure on us. But this is good for us, it is good not to get relaxed. We are sailing upwind with the solent, taking a reef in and out when the wind gets up or drops. We have a typical sea state you see before a cold front, the waves from the wave from the west and the wind wave from the SW. This afternoon the front should get to us.
Jean Le Cam (FRA) Président: “The Atlantic is nothing like the Mediterranean: we’ve really got some wind here. We’ll be watching out for the big shift in direction, like our friends out here. We have got 20-25 knots of wind and are sailing upwind on the port tack. We’re in a little group with Mapfre, which sailed closer to the direct route during the night, and Groupe Bel and Neutrogena. It’s a race within the race. These groups formed as we made our way out of the Mediterranean. Sailing in such close contact is very motivating. When there are several of you together like that, you’re bound to sail quickly.
The front is expected to reach us at around 1700 hrs GMT. We’ll then change to the starboard tack heading into some heavy seas for two or three hours. For the moment, it’s not that difficult to deal with, but later, we’re really going to have to hold on tight aboard the boat. Ours doesn’t have much volume at the bow, so she cuts nicely through the waves. So it’s quite pleasant really.
Both Bruno and I managed to get some rest since we left the Mediterranean behind. We’re eating well and we don’t have any particular worries.”
Pachi Rivero (ESP) Renault ZE Sailing Team: “We are very happy to be out of the Atlantic and clear of the Mediterranean. It has been very hard, many many hours becalmed, but already have put it behind us and are getting on. Now we are going well. We have opened our presents. Sobaos, and at sea that is delicious. I could eat them all but I have to share everything on board. Good sun hats, music and a letter from the family. Great Kings!
We are happy and full of drive to get the best from Regatta ZE. It is a long distance race and we have only started. At the moment we are in the same weather system as the others and that is good. We are heading for the front and then we turn south for the sun and the warmth.
Conditions at the moment are good, 13knots boat speed at 266 deg.”
From Barcelona World Race
