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2008/01/25 - 20h52
Avoiding the snares
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| Jules Verne Trophy |
| Having already covered 600 miles in 24 hours in this their first day at sea, Groupama 3 is perfectly inside the time of the
Jules Verne Trophy holder, even though the wind has dropped off markedly off Portugal. After a light spell on Friday afternoon,
Franck Cammas and his nine crews set off again at over twenty knots towards the Canaries.
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An ideal first day for this round the world record attempt, but the second day didn't start off quite so well with the
boat slowed off Lisbon and several hours and several zones of light winds to negotiate before the Canary Islands. Setting
off at a brisk pace from Ushant at 07h 50' 17'' GMT on Thursday, Groupama 3 had to perform an 'm-shaped' trajectory across
the Bay of Biscay to reach the latitude of Cape Finisterre, during its first night at sea. A slight detour due to the rotation
of the 20 knot NW'ly wind in the morning to an E'ly wind in the evening... Following this the breeze filled in at the approach
to the Iberian coast, exceeding thirty knots prior to easing slightly in the middle of the night. Their lead over Orange II's
reference time rose then to over thirty miles but this was reduced as Groupama 3 headed due South and was forced to flirt
with a zone of little wind off Peniche.
There iss less than ten knots of true wind but fortunately this is blowing
from the ESE, enabling the giant trimaran to maintain a good pace as far as the latitude of the Straits of Gibraltar. However
the situation is likely to become more complicated between Madeira and the Canaries, as a `snare' of shifty, fickle winds
lays in wait for them, due to a degenerating of a stormy disturbance to the West of the two archipelagos... The difficulty
of this for navigator Yves Parlier, working in collaboration with the onshore weather expert Sylvain Mondon, is to find the
right passage to zigzag between these calm zones, prior to finding the NE'ly tradewinds. For the time being the air flow is
rather laboured along the African coast.
However in sailing, as with chess, you have to be five moves ahead and their
current preoccupations are geared towards an Argentinean front and trying to catch up with the right wagon, enabling them
to make good speed towards the Cape of Good Hope once they reach the level of Rio de Janeiro...
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IntroThis first day at sea has also been an opportunity for the crew to get their sea-legs and get their references on deck so
as to get used to the rhythm onboard. "We've had a great start! The land-sea transition has gone well and we're concentrating
on settling down for the long haul now. Even though this has been anticipated for a long time, it's a big rupture and you
have to get into the skin of a man who will be spending some time at sea, even if we're going to try and make it as short
as possible... We had wind and big seas overnight, which meant that conditions were a little reminiscent of the Deep South:
a good way to get your sea-legs. Everything is falling into place; the watches, the rhythm, the meals, the storage of our
personal gear... It's still a little difficult to sleep but it is all coming together slowly" explained Frédéric Le
Peutrec, during the daily radio session with HQ on Boulevard Malesherbes.
In a day and a half, the ten men on Groupama
3 have experienced almost all the different weather conditions they are going to encounter during the round the world voyage:
light wind, eased sheets off Portugal, brisk wind on the beam off the tip of Spain, medium downwind conditions in the Bay
of Biscay... The crew's objective is to rapidly catch onto the African tradewinds, which will be lacking at the start of the
weekend. However, what is particularly interesting is the fact that their route is virtually identical to that of the maxi
catamaran skippered by Bruno Peyron, 3 years ago to the day in the same area! Since the latitude of Lisbon, the two boats
have been following exactly the same trajectory with just a few miles differential...
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