Author: Grégoire Chéron

For the past 24 hours, since they made a perfectly controlled turn to the east offshore of Brazil, the men of the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild have clearly been lengthening their stride. Constantly making over 30 knots, often stretching to close to 35-40 knots, the six sailors are ticking off the miles at very high speed, increasing their lead over Francis Joyon’s record in the process. They were 732 miles in credit at the 07:00 UTC position report, compared with 442 miles at the same time yesterday. However, today’s the day when the atmosphere and the setting will really change aboard. The big blue skies will likely give way to moderate conditions ahead of the front and the T-shirts and shorts the crew were still wearing on deck yesterday afternoon will likely be consigned to their bags for a while.

The pureness of the trajectory

Since exiting the doldrums on Friday, the trajectory of the latest Gitana has been crystal-clear and it’s worth congratulating the work of Gitana Team’s weather cell for this vision, starting with Marcel van Triest, the router of the five-arrow stable. From his Mediterranean HQ, he has managed to hit the nail on the head! On setting sail from Ushant at the trailing edge of a weather slot more than a week ago, the Dutchman had a very clear image in his mind of the connection the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild needed to make yesterday. The teamwork required to achieve this was fantastic as it was important to stick closely to the polars of the 32-metre giant and line themselves up with a string of weather systems as the theory envisaged.

“It was important not to arrive in the south too early otherwise we’d have had to hang around at the station waiting for the train of depressions. In this case, I’d say that we managed to really nail the timing in terms of this transition. We had this pattern in mind and it’s great when things go according to plan!” admitted Marcel van Triest, a twinkle in his eye.

Strong wind for entering the 40th parallel

“The wind will lift considerably as we bend eastwards and we’ll end up on a downwind point of sail by the end of the day,” explained Franck Cammas yesterday. “Next, the wind will pick up considerably as far as South Africa. The visibility will change ahead of the front, even though the sea state will remain fine for quite a long time, which will enable us to post some very fine average speeds by exploiting the boat’s true potential. We’re flat out and we need to be to tackle this section. The next few days are all about striking a balance. We mustn’t be too quick or too slow to keep nicely ahead of the front. We must remain in a sector where the wind strength and direction is right. To achieve this, we need to constantly adjust the Maxi’s speed and course according to the speed and direction of the front, which is propelling us towards the Southern Ocean.”

This section of the Jules Verne Trophy course is known for providing teams with the opportunity to secure another record, that of 24 hours! Here, the team seem to have all the ingredients right now in the South Atlantic, between Rio de Janeiro and Cape Town, but the skippers of the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild remain clear about their strategy, as Franck Cammas points out: “It’s tempting to get carried away by the speed and performance the boat is more than capable of, but we’re only at the start of our round the world and we need to think about the bigger picture for the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild. The 24-hour record is not our primary objective, our eyes are on the Jules Verne Trophy.”

The crewed 24-hour distance record has been held since 1 August 2009 by Pascal Bidégorry and the men of Banque Populaire V. This was achieved during a North Atlantic record attempt and they covered 908.2 miles at an average speed of 37.84 knots; a fabulous time which still stands today even though it has been under threat on several occasions since.

After a relatively peaceful two-day transition along the Brazilian coast, the crew of the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild has begun to put some easting into its course, gradually bending the 32-metre giant’s trajectory round towards the point of entry into the Southern Ocean, the Cape of Good Hope. Very quick over the past four hours with an average speed of over 35 knots at the 07:00 UTC position report, Franck Cammas, Charles Caudrelier and their four crew have also increased their lead over the current record holder to 428 miles this Monday morning. We’ve got it, aboard the flying maxi-trimaran the pace is set to accelerate over the coming hours whilst the temperature will drop as the six sailors plunge towards the southern latitudes.

Since exiting the doldrums on Friday, the six sailors aboard the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild have benefited from mild sailing conditions throughout the weekend. They’ve managed to post high speeds on a long sprint on port tack offshore of the Brazilian coast, without forcing things for either the boat or the men. Franck Cammas commented on their performance: “we’ve maintained some high average speeds at some points of sail, which aren’t usually synonymous with going so fast. We knew that the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild was capable of doing that, but it’s always better to have confirmation of it out on the water. One of the strengths of this flying boat is being swift when sailing close to the wind, as we have been over the past three days.”
Despite the constant speed, the men of Gitana Team have benefited from the ordered seas and warm yet very pleasant temperature to get some rest, whilst also going around the boat, checking the platform and the systems before they dive down towards the Deep South.

So what if we were to look at the Jules Verne Trophy from the perspective of the summit it represents in the world of offshore racing? On its journey around the planet with the clock as its implacable adversary, this sailing record undoubtedly and figuratively ranks as one of the toughest mountains to climb. The challenge taken up by the men of Gitana Team is massive, namely a circumnavigation of the blue planet at a cracking pace to secure a new reference time under 40 days and 23 hours. In the high seas, just like in the high mountains, the challenges which push the envelope of human performance are both particularly dependent on the weather. Their success is inextricably linked to this component and with it the goodwill of Nature, which always has the final say. Little wonder then that when these two sports take the form of a feat on the crest of the waves or on the roof of the world, they have the distinctive feature of giving rise to remote weather routing with forecasts tailored for extreme environments. It is an art, a science in its own right where expertise takes precedence, some of the secrets to which are shared with us by Marcel van Triest, who is supporting the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild in her round the world navigation, and by Yan Giezendanner, a forecaster who in recent days has completed the routing for an historic winter ascent of K2…

Sorcerer of the seas Vs guru of the summits

In its quest for the Jules Verne Trophy, it is through a close and constant relationship with Marcel Van Triest that the crew of the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild is today carving out a wake towards the Southern Ocean, which it should reach in a few days’ time. This polyglot Dutchman is the 7th man of the five-arrow team. He is a rather special member of the crew, who has made round the world campaigns and navigation in the hostile latitudes of the Deep South his great speciality and trademark. From his Mediterranean HQ, he is vicariously participating in this record attempt being undertaken by the six members of the crew aboard the latest Gitana. With this goal, it is his mission to locate the magical way through, “this optimal route, which may not necessarily be the shortest, but is the quickest,” the route which gives the 32-metre giant every opportunity of a successful oceanic sprint. At this level, every hour spent navigating this course of around 22,000 miles (40,744 km) counts. This provides some insight into what is required in a gamble of this kind and the importance assumed by reading oceanic weather, which remains the prerogative of a precious few who are experts in the art of deciphering charts and models of all the world’s seas which are effectively one large ocean.

“The router is a bit like a reclusive caveman, completely shut away and living his life connected up to his computers, which remain tuned into the boat 24/7, 7 days a week. As such, whilst I’m routing, I never sleep for more than an hour in a row. I have a lot of alarms around me, which I adjust according to expected performance in the conditions it is encountering. If the crew want to call me up, they can also slow the boat down… That too works very well!” explains the man, who is today living and working at the tempo of the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild, whose progress he tracks, attuned to the conditions it’s encountering and the progress displayed by the data he receives continuously in elapsed time. “Twice a day, morning and evening, I send a summary to the boat, an outline diagram for an overall approach, which I put together using thirty or so models for the next eight to ten days. Beyond the safety aspect, one of the challenges is to avoid ending up in a cul de sac, in a situation from which there is no way out. I have to be one step ahead or rather an ocean ahead at all times,” explains the Jules Verne Trophy specialist, who has been the router for the last two crews to set a reference time on the planetary course, that of Loïck Peyron in 2012 and that of Francis Joyon, in January 2017.

Conquering an historic summit in mountaineering

At high altitude, Yan Giezendanner, a 66-year forecaster who boasts 43 years of good and faithful service at Météo France, the national meteorological service, has always devoted his talents to the mountain universe. From his base camp in Chamonix, he too works with his eyes riveted to his computer screens, which he never turns off. However, his mind extends to the highest summits on the planet, which he has scaled through routing, from the Himalayan mountain range, to Mount McKinley (Denali) in Alaska, via the Antarctic and Patagonia… The man known by his experienced mountaineer peers as the ‘third man of the roped party’, boasts a list of achievements that is as long as a windless day in the doldrums. With around twenty or so Everest ascents to his credit and a string of summits of which he knows all the routes and features, today Yan Giezendanner is the only Frenchman to have successfully completed the ‘fourteen 8,000m peaks’. This outstanding meteorologist has enabled the top mountaineers to achieve this feat. “I know these 8,000m peaks. I know where you have to go, the climatic constants and why they take place… I make the distinction between Everest, Makalu, McKinley, Fitz Roy and of course K2, the furthest north of the 8,000m peaks”, explains this expert observer of what the weather is doing in spheres perched very high above sea level. This is evidenced by the prestigious route he has just pinpointed for a Nepalese expedition to conquer the second highest peak in the world (8,611 metres), the formidable K2, which had never been summited in winter before, and could not have been timed better. Hot off the presses, it is the perfect illustration of a whole list of meteorological achievements, which are fleshed out with every passing year in the high mountains.

In the Karakoram range in Pakistan, this particularly hostile mountain resisted all winter attempts at the summit for over 15 years. To reach it, you have to edge your way along a colossal glacier and skirt the Chinese border. Here, between the two countries, the mountain rises up, pyramidal, vertiginous, in the icy sky, where the temperatures hover around -50°, sometimes dropping to -60° on the sections around the summit. “It’s an extraordinary challenge that these Nepalese have just pulled off. It’s a major world first on one of the last great challenges to be taken up in the Himalayas. This ascent is hugely risky due to the cold, acute mountain sickness, snowfall, avalanches and route errors…” bears out the man who, once again, has just demonstrated the pertinence of his forecasts, at the end of an ascent officially completed on Saturday 16 January. “For several days, I’d been watching an ascent window for these mountaineers, who had acclimatised well over recent weeks. I saw the fine weather arriving and was able to give them the start signal by indicating the right moment to set off on this final route to make the dangerous summit. It was the last challenge left in the Himalayas and, inevitably, succeeding is a great pleasure.”

At the discretion of the jet stream

“My work is very similar to that which can be done by a router for a maritime expedition, the only difference being that in sailing the weather watch is constant, the monitoring permanent and without interruption, which makes things a little more complicated”, adds the meteorologist for the highest peaks, though he too has to avoid the pitfalls that punctuate the terrain in this hostile universe: serac barriers or crevasses, the negotiation of which can massively delay climbers, both on the ascent and the descent. “I began routing for mountaineers in the eighties, at a time when they were linking together major routes like the Matterhorn and the Grandes Jorasses… In 1995, with the arrival of the Internet, I was able to send information to the mountaineers taking on climbs in the Himalayas, at which point my remote routing work really took off”, explains the man who now spends his time watching the movements and developments of the jet stream. “In the Himalayas, which are located at a latitude of 35° north, I’m constantly battling with this powerful current of air, which ranges between 50 to 250 km/hr (from 27 to 135 knots) at high altitude. As it does a lap of the Earth, I follow this undulating jet and its twists and turns. Where there is a break in these turns, there is no more breeze and that’s where a favourable weather window presented itself to reach the 8,600-metre K2”, says this enthusiast of the high mountains, who is delighted at the advances made in equipment, oxygen supply and the precision of weather forecasts, which are synonymous with increased safety in the practice of this high-risk sport.

In his exchanges with mountaineers whose rope parties he tracks, Yan Giezendanner sends daily weather forecasts via email and satellite phone indicating what the weather will be like and the various episodes expected (snowfall, foggy patches…). Unlike Marcel van Triest though, who favours written messaging, which can be reread, thus preventing the loss of information in the ambient din of a giant driving flat out, the high mountain router makes phone calls to the expedition leaders who are making headway at altitudes where the satellite connections are very good. “I always speak directly to the team. That enables us to be completely in agreement about the strategy to follow throughout the acclimatisation period and during the final ascent to the summit. When I talk to mountaineers directly, I also get an understanding of what shape they’re in”, reasons the router, who likes to concoct tailored forecasts for expeditions heading up to the lofty heights where planes fly.

In search of a fast track for flight in the open ocean

On the oceans of the globe and when designing a trajectory for the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild, Marcel Van Triest uses the utmost vigilance at all times to monitor and observe the other systems, which operate with their own mechanisms. After the intertropical convergence zone, which more than lived up to its reputation – unpredictable and very difficult to negotiate – Gitana Team’s router is focusing his attention on the train of low-pressure systems in the southern hemisphere. It is at the leading edge of one of these low-pressure systems that he’d like to position the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild, which has latched back on to some more favourable winds to extend her lead as she gulps down the latitudes on her way towards the famous route around the three capes surrounding the Antarctic continent. In this environment, which can serve up extreme conditions round the clock to the men and their boat, he seeks to locate the fast track, which will enable the trimaran geared for offshore flight to avoid a battering from the nasty Deep South and dodge as many zones of turbulence with bad swell as possible so as not to impinge on their ability to maintain high speeds. “Ideally, you want to find the right balance between a route that’s not too long and hence quite far south, and a trajectory that avoids the heavy seas you encounter in the furious fifties. The dream situation, which enables thousands of miles to be covered at the best constant speed, may well exist at the 35th parallel. However, ideal configurations are few and far between and it is by enabling the team to get close to this that the weather router plays a crucial role in this record hunt”, he adds.

Approaching the great liquid desert that forms such an epic passage on this planetary course under sail, Marcel van Triest is stepping up his vigilance in his observation of the ice, a topic he excels in. “In the past ten years, we’ve seen great progress in the ability to obtain images from space. Via the CLS (Satellite Data Collection) models, we have a far greater ability to visualise the presence of icebergs. This year, the austral summer has proven to be fairly ‘calm’. The situation is pretty clear, even though there is quite a large concentration appearing in the South Atlantic, to the north of South Georgia. There doesn’t seem to be any ice in the Pacific, as there was during Banque Populaire V’s record attempt, where there was an enormous iceberg breaking up in the middle of the track, adds Gitana Team’s router, whose work today is designed to break a record he already holds. “Over the past ten years, the role of the weather has intensified a great deal. It is central to the success of an attempt”, he asserts, well-placed to gauge the difficulty of a mission to circumnavigate the blue planet via its express way, which is akin to the north face of a mountain.

“We work in the same atmosphere, but in the sailing universe it’s doubtless more complicated, with numerous wind parameters to factor in, like the strength or direction, as well as the sea state, which is crucially important. However, in an extreme environment, be that on land or at sea, weather routing is a first-rate strategic support in the quest for performance. On the oceans, as is the case on the highest mountains, records are set to be broken”, echoes Yan Giezendanner, which is inevitably what we want and have every reason to believe…

Aboard the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild, there was rather a peculiar atmosphere yesterday; a combination of the very bad and sad news coming from land and the complete contrast with the immediate environment on the 32-metre giant. In fact, for the past 36 hours, Franck Cammas and Charles Caudrelier’s crew has been benefiting from ideal conditions for both the men and the machine. The six sailors are slipping along on a long port tack offshore of the Brazilian coast and should pass the latitude of Cabo Frio and Rio de Janeiro at the end of the day. Indeed, despite the SE’ly breeze easing to around 12 knots since the middle of the night, they are powering southwards at an average speed of around 20 knots. Yesterday was also very interesting purely in terms of miles in the bank as it enabled the sailors of Gitana Team to rack up a lead of over 280 miles in relation to their virtual adversary.

The first week of the record attempt 

After setting sail from Ushant on 10 January at 01:33 UTC, the crew of the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild ticked off the first week of its Jules Verne Trophy record attempt last night offshore of Brazil. Seven days, during which time the latest Gitana has covered 4,700 miles over the ground, namely relative to the surface of the earth, at an average speed of 28 knots. When you’re aware that the latter number includes the 24 hours at a virtual standstill in the doldrums, you get a better understanding of how fast life is whizzing by on Gitana 17.  This long sprint southbound on port tack, which began on exiting the intertropical convergence zone, clearly marks a transition between two highlights of the descent of the Atlantic. These more ‘peaceful’ times now, which are just as quick, are much appreciated by the crew: “All’s well aboard! It’s fairly calm here. The conditions are enabling us to get some rest, as the temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold and the combination of ordered seas and a medium wind are allowing us to make good gains along the course. We must have covered over 700 miles in one day yesterday, with around fifteen knots or so of breeze, which is very pleasing it has to be said”, admitted Yann Riou at daybreak.

Appointment confirmed 

On setting sail on the crewed round the world record under sail one week ago, Franck Cammas, Charles Caudrelier and their weather router Marcel van Triest were targeting a precise date and time to the south of Brazil. The idea is to position themselves offshore of Latin America just as a front bound for the Deep South detaches itself from the continent. The race to make the connection with this train of low-pressure looks nicely on track and should take place early in the week. In just a matter of hours, life aboard will change drastically aboard as they hitch a ride on the express train south. Fleece layers, gloves and hats will make their comeback on the deck of the blue flying maxi-trimaran, whilst the permanent whistling of the appendages will cause the decibels to ratchet up. As such, days synonymous with a transition, like those the six members of the crew are currently experiencing, are a precious commodity for getting rest and recharging the batteries.

Sorry, this entry is only available in FR.

After setting sail from Ushant on Sunday 10 January at 01:33 UTC on the quest for the Jules Verne Trophy, the crew of the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild crossed the equator this Friday 15 January at 14h48’32” UTC, after 5 days 13 hours 14 minutes and 46 seconds at sea. Though this first passage time is a far cry from the outright record for this section, which has been held since 2019 by Spindrift Racing in a time of 4 days 19 hours 57 minutes, it has nevertheless enabled the sailors of Gitana Team to make the switch into the southern hemisphere with a lead of nearly six hours over the time set by Idec Sport.

A very sticky doldrums! 

This symbolic passage between the two hemispheres is certainly a moment for celebration for Franck Cammas, Charles Caudrelier and their four crew (David Boileau, Morgan Lagravière, Erwan Israël and Yann Riou), but above all they are happy to have rediscovered more favourable sailing conditions with which to do their steed justice. Indeed, the doldrums has been tough on the men of the flying maxi-trimaran. Finding herself with her wings clipped due to running out of breeze, the 32-metre giant struggled to extricate herself from the clutches of the infamous intertropical convergence zone. Throughout the course of the day yesterday and the following night, the crew had to simply learn to bide their time as they amassed multiple manoeuvres under a burning hot cuddy in a bid to make the most of the slightest gust and the tiniest cloud. This is evidenced by the navigation statistics from the past 24 hours: a little less than 260 miles covered at a speed of 10.8 knots with a VMG of just 6 knots… It proved to be interminable for a team of sailors striving to secure the round the world record under sail, who like nothing better than high-speed sailing.

However, aboard the boat, it’s with this philosophy that the crew traversed this zone, as Charles Caudrelier explains: “It wasn’t that hard in the sense that we always managed to keep the boat moving, even if it was extremely slow progress at times… but that enabled us to get some rest, because even though the start of our race wasn’t very violent, we were going fast so it’s never easy to sleep well. Right now, we’ve nicely recharged our batteries, we’ve found our sea legs and we’re right into the action. The last few calmer hours have also enabled us to do a thorough check of the boat, which is good because we won’t have a lot of opportunities to do that further down the track. We’re attacking the southern hemisphere with a boat in fantastic shape and that’s the best news! We’d certainly have liked a better passage time to the equator, it’s always nice to break a record, but with the doldrums you never know how things are going to play out. It wasn’t very wide but it was very painful.”

Welcome to the South Atlantic 

Franck Cammas, Charles Caudrelier and their four crew launched off on the Jules Verne Trophy with a weather pattern in mind. Indeed, the transition into the South Atlantic contributed a great deal to their choice of weather window and the time they crossed the start line off Ushant. The idea was to get to a point offshore of Brazil when a sufficiently powerful front powering down to the Southern Ocean unleashed itself from the South American continent. And to benefit from better conditions for slipping along, which come with the guarantee of high speeds, you generally need to position yourself in front of this train of low-pressure. This whole sequence is the current target for the crew of the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild and their weather router, Marcel van Triest, if they are to stand a chance of securing a fine passage time to Cape Agulhas, in South Africa: “The time lost in the doldrums will not have a drastic effect since we’re arriving in the south at the right time, just as the models are being corroborated for hooking onto the right weather system. The problem that may be posed now is that we don’t have a lot of leeway. For the next four days, we’ll need to be quick and precise in our trajectory so that we don’t miss the train of low-pressure systems to the south of Rio,” underlined Charles Caudrelier.

An explanation of the timing 

The lead and deficit, which appear on our cartography, are calculated at each ranking in terms of the distance to the goal. With the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild crossing the equator further over to the west than Idec Sport and hence further from the direct course (great circle route), she lamented a 16.6-mile deficit in relation to her virtual adversary. However, in terms of the actual time between Ushant and the line dividing the two hemispheres, the flying five-arrow maxi-trimaran was faster than that of Francis Joyon and his men. Five days 13 hours 14 minutes and 46 seconds for Gitana 17 compared with 5 days 18 hours and 57 minutes for Idec, which translates as a passage time 5 hours and 44 minutes quicker.

Some 24 hours ago, the men of the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild plunged brutally from high-speed downwind conditions to close-hauled sluggish progress with no wind. Since then, the six sailors have tried everything to extricate themselves from the clutches of this very sticky, all-pervasive doldrums, performing multiple manœuvres and trimming their entire sail wardrobe. But nothing is working! The wind has vanished and with the exception of a few cooperative clouds, which are enabling them to make start-stop progress towards the exit, this passage across the intertropical convergence zone is turning into a long, hard battle. Fortunately, this is not the sailors’ first go at this and they are able to gain some sense of perspective in light of the thousands of miles that lie ahead of the bows of the flying maxi-trimaran. The long old day and sleepless night has cost them dearly. Credited with a 140-mile lead yesterday morning, the sailors of Gitana Team are kicking off their sixth day of the attempt with an 86-mile deficit at 07:00 UTC.

A different scenario for every passage through the doldrums 

It is a given that on passing through the gates into this convergence zone between the two hemispheres, you’re entering into the unknown. From violent winds fleshed out by active squalls to an endless series of calm spells, anything goes here and nothing is set in stone. From one race to the next, the doldrums reserves a very different fate for the sailors traversing it, which is why it is so feared by sailors everywhere. Yesterday morning, upon brutally toppling into it at around 08:00 UTC, Franck Cammas, Charles Caudrelier and their crew did not imagine that they would spend 24 hours here, powerless against the lack of wind.

Aboard, despite the tension associated with this lack of speed and the time ticking away, the different watches have endeavoured to continue their routine of rotations to keep up the pace. This is no mean feat amidst the numerous manœuvres, which require all the crew to come up on deck, and the exhausting heat under the cuddy and in the central hull of the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild.

Casting one’s mind forward to the next stage of the round the world and taking the positives from the situation are doubtless the best way to begin this 6th day of the Jules Verne Trophy record attempt. The equator, still nearly 150 miles away on a direct course, should be behind them today at which point a very different navigation awaits in the SE’ly trade wind on a course towards the Southern Ocean.

On the fifth day of Gitana Team’s attempt to secure the Jules Verne Trophy, the miles gained over the record holder during the descent of the North Atlantic, have melted away to nothing. Going from a 140-mile lead this morning, the meter has slipped into the red late in the afternoon. The reason for this is that since the end of last night, the men on the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild have been ensnared in the doldrums and it’s the light airs version with slow progress, which has been reserved for them. Faced with these weather hazards, which are completely unpredictable in this intertropical convergence zone, the only option is patience. Aboard the latest of the Gitanas, these calmer times have been put to good use to do a complete check of the boat and recharge the batteries, despite the stifling heat, which has gatecrashed the insides of the five-arrow giant.

“A big curtain of a squall!”

At the end of last night, the entry into the doldrums was brutal for the six sailors on the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild. Morgan Lagravière, who was on watch during this express transition between the trade wind and the convergence zone, described the scene: “It came just as day broke and the half-light gradually became brighter. We began to see the first squalls appearing on the radar. We were only mildly suspicious but then the moment we fell under the influence of the squall, the wind picked up and we got nailed by a serious header and, fairly swiftly, we had to rush to the sheets to prevent the boat from heeling over too far! It rapidly became a case of action stations! We had to roll in the headsail, the large jib, so we could switch to a sail better suited to sailing close-hauled. It all happened in the blink of an eye. We didn’t have the time to ask any questions and a few minutes later we all had a good shower, making the most of the end of the squall!”

An exit this evening or overnight

Since this squall rolled through, the wind has vanished from the zone in question. And this is the case for miles around. As a result, the team aboard the blue flying maxi-trimaran have no other option than to just grin and bear it and try to exploit the slightest puff of air in the sails to free themselves from the clutches of the doldrums.

“We have very calm weather, clear skies and small cumulus, reminiscent of summer, not the colours synonymous with a classic doldrums. So for now, there are no black squalls and none of the usual wind. We still have 60/70 miles to go in the light airs before we discover the winds of the southern hemisphere so there’s still a very long way to go. We’d like to hook onto the wind that’s ahead of us, as the more miles we tick off now, the more they will multiply later, creating a concertina effect. Right now, we’re in the middle and it’s very, very calm weather. We’ll get all the possible sail area aloft to extricate ourselves”, admitted Franck Cammas this afternoon.

This 14 January won’t be one to remember with any fondness on this attempt, but aboard the boat, the six members of the crew know how to get things back in perspective and cast their minds forward to the next stage of the programme in the South Atlantic, which is still shaping up to be very interesting. Today, they have had to endure a great deal, but if we look in more detail at the route carved out by Idec Sport, the current holder of the trophy, it is tomorrow that their virtual adversary begins to stall…

Since passing offshore of Cape Verde yesterday morning, the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild has been slipping along at a fair old lick in the trade wind of the northern hemisphere, on a direct course to the equator. However, for the past few hours, the six sailors that make up her crew have been experiencing a slight change in weather pattern. In fact, at 6° North, the intertropical convergence zone is making its presence felt ahead of the bows of the 32-metre giant and with it comes a whole bunch of the weather hazards so renowned and dreaded by the sailors traversing the area. After four days at sea in this Jules Verne Trophy, Franck Cammas, Charles Caudrelier and their four crew are attacking the doldrums with a 143-mile lead over the current record.

The hand of fate

Last night, before suffering the first effects of the doldrums, Yann Riou concocted a very vivid picture postcard of their high-speed passage in the trade wind. “There’s no doubt we’re under the tropics!” quips the crew’s onboard media man at the start. “All’s well aboard. Conditions over the past 24 hours have been fairly easy. I did a short watch yesterday evening and there was a whole procession of flying fish. They were passing onto the trampoline and under the trampoline. They were taking off at the bow and landing at the back of the boat. We can see sargassum too… The water temperature has increased considerably! So why am I talking to you about the water temperature? Because that’s what you can feel inside the boat. And that’s not a very nice aspect of it because the central hull is really very hot… a fairly muggy heat. It’s not always easy to rest and get off to sleep in these conditions. That said, it’s very pleasant on deck and well ventilated. Right now, we’re in little T-shirts and are currently making 35 knots, 37 even under autopilot. We’ve hardly used the autopilot since the start but it’s working well here. We’re making headway towards the doldrums and we’re keen to see what fate has in store for our passage. At this exact moment we’re making 38, 40 knots! It’s pitch black and cloudy and we have the radar on to keep watch and look at what’s going on ahead a little. We’regoing very fast and the sea has flattened out nicely enabling us to make the most of the boat’s true potential.”

Indeed, in the past 24 hours, the flying maxi-trimaran has been racking up an average speed of 32.5 knots, which equates to nearly 800 miles covered along the course. However, this Thursday 14 January won’t be coloured by the same pace. Though the environment continues to change in the ITCZ and it’s always difficult to predict the upcoming weather conditions, despite the quality of the forecasts and the expertise of the team’s weather router, Marcel van Triest, the name of the game is always the same for him. It’s all about finding the best possible passage through, namely the area where there is still some breeze, whilst targeting an exit point that’s not too far west so we maintain a favourable angle of attack to enter the southern hemisphere.

A first record possible?

The first intermediate record of this round the world, approved by the WSSRC, is that between Brest and the equator. Today and since 2019 it has been the property of the Swiss team of Spindrift Racing with a time of 4 days 19 hours and 57 minutes. With what seems like an active intertropical convergence zone still to negotiate, this reference time looks like a tough ask for the men of Gitana Team. However, with the doldrums you can’t be sure of anything so there’s always hope… To achieve that, Charles Caudrelier, Franck Cammas, David Boileau, Yann Riou, Erwan Israël and Morgan Lagravière would have to make the switch into the south and cross the virtual line between the two hemispheres before 21:30 UTC this evening!