27.11.2007
Michèle rids Temenos II of its flying fish
A fine day aboard Temenos II
Step by step, weather obstacle after weather obstacle, gateway after gateway, the fleet in the Barcelona World Race is continuing on its way to the next compulsory passage mark situated close to the island of Fernando de Noronha. For the majority of the boats, the doldrums are now but a memory, bad for some like Paprec-Virbac, which lost its leadership, and better for others like Temenos II who gained a place. The doldrums have certainly given Michèle and Dominique some worries but the duo’s efforts have not been in vain.
Free of the clutches of the inter-tropical zone of convergence, Temenos II was sailing close-hauled in 6th position, carried by the tradewinds of the Southern hemisphere. Conditions aboard are hot and it’s wet on deck, but spirits reindex high on this 17th day of racing. The duo is happy to be out of the doldrums and it was a happy Michèle who contacted us at midday to tell us about the last few hours of racing.
“The conditions are fine, Temenos II is slipping along well. It’s very pleasant after the doldrums and the days spent under spinnaker. It's good to get back to normal. We're happy to be out of the doldrums and be back with our playmates. Last night we were expecting conditions to be as difficult as the previous night with repeated lines of squalls, because we could already see some big swathes of cloud ahead of us at nightfall. However, given that the boat had little pace we managed to zigzag past them and avoid them. We certainly adopted some rather strange trajectories but finally it all seems to have paid off.
As there weren‘t any squalls, we didn’t need to both be on stand-by on deck, which enabled us to get some sleep. At the moment we’re under automatic pilot and applying ourselves to the trimming. In these conditions you recuperate quickly, you don’t get tired manœuvring and that’s a real plus.
It’s a bit of a bouncy ride but the sea state is not preventing Temenos II from keeping up a good pace.
In the boat, it is beginning to get hot and it's fairly wet. It's a bit like an oven down below at 32°C.
We have rigged up a little ventilator near the bunk which helps you sleep. Without that you end up covered in great beads of sweat so it prevents us from slipping on the imitation leather as soon as the boat heels over! (laughs)”
The SE’ly tradewinds should go smoothly, building gradually as the fleet progress, enabling the boats to step up the pace. The two leaders are clearly into the fair weather already as their speeds indicate in the latest ranking. Now sadly is not a very good time for the chasing pack to make up their deficit…
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