Barcelona World Race, heading home

Atlantic Ocean – The Azores high pressure system has proven to be a road block for Bernard Stamm and Jean Le Cam. Their passage northwards at the head of the Barcelona World Race fleet, saw them running out of breeze and so their tack eastwards, towards the Straits of Gibraltar, was made early this morning. And as the Swiss-French duo progress east towards the Moroccan coast, passing south of Madeira, they will reconnect with the better NE’ly trade winds.

Cheminées Poujoulat has 1100 miles to sail until the welcome of the pillars of Hercules the iconic gates to the Mediterranean formed by the Rock of Gibraltar on the European coast and Jebel Musa (852m high) in Morocco’s Rif mountains.

Legend has it that, as one of his 12 labours, Hercules was required to fetch the cattle of Geryon and to deliver them to Eurystheus. But his way was blocked by the mountain which had been created by Perseus. Hercules smashed the mountain in half, the northern pillar becoming the Rock of Gibraltar and the southern one Jebel Musa.

The Swiss-French duo are due to pass back through the gates the evening of Sunday 22nd March. It will remain upwind all the way to the Moroccan coast but they should be progressively lifted as the trade wind backs a little more N’ly as they get closer to the coast. Today they were about 500 miles WNW of the Canary Islands. After tacking this morning their angle looked pretty horrible, pointing almost directly towards the islands, certainly south of east, but that has improved with speed today, making between nine and ten knots. Their lead remains static at just over 900 miles – or three to four days – ahead of Neutrogena.

The battle for second and third retains a frustrating status quo for Anna Corbella and Gérard Marin. They lost one mile to the leaders since the same time yesterday and three miles to Neutrogena. Each day in the NE’ly trade winds, 105 miles behind Neutrogena, GAES Centros Auditivos are still devoid of options. They can on ly follow the best course of the boat in front, still fighting for each metre, but it does not stop Corbella from thinking of her first run on the Catalan beaches with her golden retriever and Marín will be eagerly anticipating being reunited with his daughter who was only four months old when he left on this three month race around the world. Pre-start the duo said they would be happy with a podium finish, but having been so close to Neutrogena – they will finish frustrated not to get close enough to have a go at passing in the Mediterranean.

The three boats now in the North Atlantic were granted a brisk, business-like passage through the Doldrums, but that does not look to be the case for We Are Water and One Planet, One Ocean & Pharmaton. The band of calms and unsettled winds – 600 miles ahead – is widening all the time and it looks increasingly like it will slow this match race which this afternoon is just 30 miles apart.

High light of the day for the Renault Captur duo has been a shower and a shave, a tonic for their physical and mental fortitude given that they are close to the Uruguay and Brazilian coast trying to piece together a jigsaw of downwind and reaching lanes to get north while the route to the east is barred by the Saint Helena high. And Spirit of Hungary are making good speeds but start to have a high pressure ridge in front of them.

Standing
1. Cheminées Poujoulat (B Stamm – J Le Cam) at  1605 miles to finish
2. Neutrogena (G Altadill – J Muñoz) + 906 miles to leader
3. GAES Centros Auditivos (A Corbella – G Marin) + 1011 miles to leader
4. We Are Water (B Garcia – W Garcia) + 2137  miles to leader
5. One Planet One Ocean & Pharmaton (A Gelabert – D Costa) + 2154 miles to leader
…

Related post

Barcelona World Race, Atlantic opens conditions Barcelona World Race, open season for the second? Barcelona World Race, the big game Barcelona World Race, out of straight