He predicts, “Honestly, I think that based on the routing, we'll cross paths with them 5 or 10 miles ahead, knowing that they're significantly faster than the routing software on average. We manage to go just a little bit faster than the routing, so that would mean we'll cross paths almost at the same time. It's kind of funny to think that at one point we had an incredible north-south gap, and that we'll end up in the same place. That's kind of crazy.”
But it could be close…very close. Bear in mind Douguet and Tréhin have a 21 minutes lead over Pirouelle and Château that they carry forwards from the stage into La Coruña. Could it come down to that?
Château recalled, “Well, there were quite a few squalls last night, so we almost had to slalom a bit between the clouds, and there were also a lot of wind shifts, so we tried to use them but that depends on the shifts being in the right direction. The squalls clear up in the early morning, so it's mainly the end of the night where it's a bit tricky. We had quite a few squalls at the beginning of the night, then towards the end of the night there were some squalls that we managed, and as soon as day breaks the squalls fade away and we're back on a more typical course. Right now we have about fifteen knots with a very slight swell, so it's perfect for making progress, even though we'd like a bit more wind, but no, the conditions are ideal for sailing.”
Explaining how they monitor their rivals’ progress he says, “We route them twice a day, once with lots of files for ourselves and then with a few files for our opponents, the Invincibles, and also SNSM.”
S'miles better
Their rivals share the same good humour: “Corentin sent me a new route, saying the race director was on a plane, and asked if I'd received the amendment for a new route that went via Cape Verde. That's the kind of humor I particularly appreciate. I asked him if things were going well skiing in the north. He said everything was fine, that the pistes were all open. So no, we rarely talk, but when we do, it's more in a friendly, light-hearted way.”
And from second placed SNSM, Corentin Douguet (SNSM Faites une don): “ Nothing is decided yet. We're second in terms of distance to the finish, but theoretically, we're on a slightly more direct route. The projections say it's going to be a close race right to the end for now. That could change, here are still almost four days of sailing left, but for now, if things go as planned, it should be a pretty tight finish. Well, now that we're back on our northern route, which is actually very close to the direct route, and the southern group that passed through the Canary Islands, where they are now, they have the wind a bit in their direction to get to Martinique, so they have to gybe, while we have the wind at an angle that means we can go almost straight to the Antilles. The wind has obviously shifted quite a bit, probably moving everyone around between the start or even between the time the competitors passed the Canaries and now. It's this evolution and everyone's initial choices that mean we're now on an almost direct route to Martinique. We have 12 knots of southeasterly wind, which allows us to head directly for Martinique at 10-11 knots. These are angles where we're practically going at wind speed with our boats. It's quite efficient. And there you have it, the weather is beautiful. That's the last cloud. There are too many clouds going to pass behind us. It's very beautiful. The sea is rather flat. There's a bit of a swell. And there you have it, the boat glides along without slamming too much.”
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