Both the IMOCA and VO65 fleets are finally free of the English Channel and into the more open waters of the Bay of Biscay / Celtic Sea / North Atlantic.
The mission now is to leave the Bay of Biscay to port and run down the west coasts of Spain and Portugal before turning into the Mediterranean.
After a couple of days of very light winds, Sunday morning brings a light to moderate breeze, but it’s a south-southwesterly, which is generally the direction of travel, meaning choices will need to be made. Further west there is likely to be more wind, but it comes at a cost of extra miles. This tactical choice over the next 24-48 hours will be one to watch.
“We lost a bit on Biotherm overnight, but still have a good lead at the moment… so far, so good,” said Benjamin Schwartz on IMOCA fleet leader, Team Holcim-PRB. His team dropped just over 10 miles in the early hours of Sunday, but have managed to stabilise now and are set up directly west of Paul Meilhat’s Biotherm team, and nearly 50 miles ahead of Boris Herrmann’s Team Malizia.
See what ‘no wind’ looks like on this boat feed from Biotherm
The VO65 fleet has pushed further west than the IMOCAs, especially the leader, WindWhisper Racing Team who are over 70 miles west of second-placed Mirpuri-Trifork and Team JAJO in third.
The challenge for WindWhisper skipper Daryl Wislang is to determine when there is enough west in the wind direction for them to tack and start making miles south – at the moment (0800 UTC) his team is pushing nearly directly west, and not making miles towards their goal.
There’s a good summary of life on board WindWhisper here
“It’s definitely been a tricky time with very, very light winds,” confirmed Viva Mexico skipper Erik Brockmann, where his team is in a pack of four VO65s chasing the leader.
“The last days have seemed more like the doldrums with a little bit of everything mixed in. Now we finally have some breeze and have sailed all night and I think we are finally getting into the southerlies we have been expecting. Only WindWhisper has been able to get into the wind first (and get away), but we can see the others, so it should be a fun day today.”
