Tuesday 4th december 2007
Anything that can go wrong…
Exit the tunnel, get out of the doldrums, extract yourself from the light conditions, bring this meteorological magma to an end, this is the leitmotif for the fifteen solo sailors in the Transat Ecover-BtoB, who are all caught in the clutches of this climatic ‘octopus’. Loïck Peyron looks to be the best placed to make good his escape before the others, not simply because he is leading but above all because he is the furthest North.
Chaos theory, Murphy's law...whatever you want to call it... the inter-tropical convergence zone, which we commonly refer to as the doldrums, doesn't respond to a single scientific principal! Impossible to model such a random phenomenon, which pays no heed to any of the forecasts and would turn any Noble prize winner mad! The only obvious thing about this zone is that anything that can go wrong, will… as the fifteen solo sailors that left Salvador de Bahia exactly five days ago can bear witness. Wind… no wind; sun...clouds; rain... gusts; downwind... upwind! The sequence of local phenomena continue to drive the sailors crazy and now positioned along various longitudes (26° West for Michel Desjoyeaux, 28° West for Loïck Peyron, 29° West for Marc Guillemot), they are looking above all else to gain northing.
Emergency exit
Nothing is simple as regards the established hierarchy this Tuesday afternoon: the doldrums is proving to be terribly unstable, not only in its structure but also in its intensity and its position shifts. It is constantly moving so whilst one of the monohulls has found the exhilaration of speed again with an excess of ten knots, it is likely that this will be short-lived... Indeed the only reference is the latitude: the skipper that is the furthest North. As it so happens, Loïck Peyron (Gitana Eighty) is in pole position, preparing to be the first to extract himself from this chaos.
"My smile is back as is the sun. Things have been better since this morning and there's no more rain. There is a hellish chop though and the waves are coming at me from every direction. I'm barely making 3 knots though as there’s no wind and the indexsail flogs with each wave. I’m drying out a bit and just concentrating on making northing to get out of here as quickly as I can,” indicated Michel Desjoyeaux, (Foncia), the only solo sailor to have been able to be contacted for a sufficient period of time during today's radio session from 1400 to 1500 UTC from the Paris Boat Show. Very briefly, Yannick Bestaven (Cervin EnR) told us that his situation was, in contrast, not too bad in the doldrums.
What will happen in the coming hours? The monohulls are going to yo-yo in the rankings until they find the way out and reach the first real rays of sunshine, a sign that the doldrums is behind them. Sun and an E’ly wind of around ten knots, quickly filling into around twenty a few hours later look to be on the cards, because beyond 8° at 8°30 (150 miles ahead of the leaders), the tradewinds of the Northern hemisphere are very much in evidence. Orientated more to the ENE, the favorable wind should enable the fleet to rapidly escape this black, menacing cloud mass...
General bunching
The good news of the day is that the chasing pack has appreciably made up its deficit: heading the 'hunters', Samantha Davies (Roxy) is just one hundred miles from the leader and Dee Caffari (Aviva), has been able to make up over sixty miles in a single day! The doldrums is also likely to change considerably over the next few hours: the windless zones will implode, paving the way for a moderate E'ly breeze from 7° North. The seven hunters are likely then to spend less time enveloped by the doldrums and be able to eat into the lead of the front of the fleet...
In addition, though the tradewinds will be more powerful from Wednesday, they'll also drop off to less than fifteen knots on Thursday. Furthermore, the high pressure zone off the Canaries is collapsing in on itself! Will there be another doldrums off Madeira as the grib files indicate for five days time? Could there be another upset in the rankings to round off the match? Should they head along the Portuguese coast or aim for the Azores? Clearly the Transat Ecover-BtoB still has some surprises in store...
Anglo-Saxon quotes from this morning:
Sam Davies (Roxy): "Well, we're finally well and truly in the Doldrums, as of last night. So far, there have been no nasty squalls, but the wind is getting lighter and lighter and is rather shifty! The sky was painted a golden red as the sun rose this morning, and I could see a bank of ominous grey clouds ahead of us. A little fishing boat pottered by too, not sure where he is headed from or to. I have tried to choose our route to correspond with where the satellite pictures and wind maps show the easiest way through this maze of shifty winds, but now Roxy is in the hands of the wind Gods as in this light wind we have little choice over our course as the wind direction dictates the route.”
Rich Wilson (Great American III): “Yesterday, I did 5 sail changes in 50 minutes in the afternoon, then the same thing at 2 am, both times through squall lines that came seemingly out of nowhere, and suddenly you're on your ear. Very fatiguing. I count the grinds on the pedestal. To go from #2 reef to #1 reef is 365 grinds in low gear, then the leech reef line and indexsheet. You get the picture - sailing these boats is a handful, and I've an older one, with less power than those at the front. Anyway, we have about 24 hours due north to get to my quikscat opening - I hope it's still there when I get there!”
Dee Caffari (Aviva): “A much happier day onboard Aviva for me. This morning I was sat in full foulies fed up with being soaked to the skin every time I went on deck. Slowly the layers came off and I enjoyed some good sailing. I crossed the equator at 1819hrs UT this evening so at least I am in the same hemisphere as everyone. The doldrums look awful ahead but a fresh water shower would be good for a wash and freshen up!"
Transat ECOVER B to B Ranking 14:00 (French time)
1 Gitana Eighty Peyron Loick at 2776.90 miles from the finish
2 Foncia Desjoyaux Michel at 14.90 miles behind
3 Brit'Air Le Cleach Armel at 15.50 miles behind
4 Generali Elies Yann at 29.80 miles behind
5 Groupe Bel De Pavant Christophe at 34.60 miles behind
6 Ecover Golding Mike at 35.10 miles behind
7 Cheminées Poujoulat Stamm Bernard at 36.20 miles behind
8 Safran Guillemot Marc at 36.70 miles behind
9 Roxy Davies Samantha at 97.40 miles behind
10 Maisonneuve Dejeanty Jean-Baptiste at 116.10 miles behind
11 Akena Veranda Boissiere Arnaud at 118.80 miles behind
12 Cervin EnR Bestaven Yannick at 147.60 miles behind
13 Great American III Wilson Rich at 221.70 miles behind
14 Aviva Caffari Dee at 227.70 miles behind
NL Spirit of Canada Hatfield Derek NC
Downloads
http://blanconegro.extranet-e.net/public/GITANA.jpg
Gitana Eighty / Loick Peyron
Crédit : V.Curutchet / DPPI
http://blanconegro.extranet-e.net/public/FONCIA_071129_01.jpg
Foncia / Michel Desjoyeaux
Crédit : V.Curutchet / DPPI
http://blanconegro.extranet-e.net/public/ROXY_071129_01.jpg
Roxy / Samantha Davies
Crédit : V.Curutchet / DPPI
Radio sessions 04/12/07
Listen and download the radio sessions by clicking below http://www.transatbtob.com/page-event-media-audio-event-vacations.html
Next ranking 04/12/07
on www.transatecoverbtob.com http://www.transatecoverbtob.com/
RADIO SESSIONS
As from November 30th and until the race’s arrival, radio sessions with the competitors will take place, daily, at 3:00 pm (french time).
These radio sessions will be broadcasted, live, on the race’s website every day a 3:00 pm.
As from November 30th until December 9th, the radio sessions will be opened to the public and will take place, live, on the Brittany region’s booth (STAND Hall 1 N92-R111) at the Paris boat show.
Rights free photos for non commercial and press use only - 10x15 cm max. Compulsory Copyright : V.Curutchet / DPPI
Press Contact
Agence Blanco Negro
e-mail : media@transatbtob.com
Florence Elizalde
Mob : +33 (0) 6 34 18 66 54
Tel : +33 (0) 1 47 72 81 41
Kate Jennings
E-mail : katejennings@free.fr
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