Panerai Transat Classique
Nearly there
On Barbados the excitement is growing as the fleet of the Panerai Transat Classique 2012 closes in on the finishing line. The leaders should arrive on the evening of 22 December. They can expect an exceptional welcome as the island gears up for Christmas.
Showing a real grasp of the tactical issues, the navigators sailing with the yachts of the Panerai Transat Classique 2012 have been applying their subtle skills to ensure their charges maintain a good turn of speed as they make the final approach to Barbados. It’s no mean feat considering the light winds blowing along the direct route, which every sailor knows is never the quickest between two points on the globe. By taking a swing out south, they can hold on to a good easterly blow which will push them all the way to the finishing line. In the pecking order,White Dolphin still has the advantage over The Blue Peter but there’s no telling what might happen once they fall in with the unreliable winds swirling through the islands. And corrected times might also cause an upset on the podium. In addition to the leaders of the Panerai Transat Classique, other duels are currently being fought in the fleet, the most notable being the one between Corto and Persephone with barely six hours separating the two. Every tack, every decision, every incident has a bearing on the outcome and could mean the difference between success and failure. And the net hanging off Persephone‘s keel might just have been one such disaster if it hadn’t been discovered in time. Behind them, the inseparable threesome of Gimcrack, Artaius and Cipango continue to play cat and mouse as they follow very similar routes.
“The birthday went really well and we celebrated it by open the much anticipated Panerai hampers. So, spaghetti and tomato sauce—a delight!—washed down with some superb Italian wine. As for the olive oil, we’ve kept it for the salads. At the end of the day the sea gave us a present in the form of a magnificent net, it was huge. We discovered it thanks to our waterproof camerawhich we use to inspect the hull three times a day, and it has already earned its keep three times over. In short, not much fun; we had to drop the kite, put the head to wind, and dive into the wet stuff to clear a huge bundle about the size of two footballs. Apart from that, we finished the day with a super omelette flavoured with Mount Gay, in honour of the Caribbean, and sixty-one birthday candles to blow out. The number is less amusing. Of course, we’ll be pressing the boat right up to the finishing line and can’t wait to arrive.”
“Big meeting this evening to decide which route we’re going to take to sail south round the anticyclone, that ball of high pressure which is set to take the wind away from us. Let’s hope we make the right choice and the weather doesn’t make fools of us like it did when we got stuck in the doldrums off the Canaries. And it would be great if, in the process, we managed to gain one or two places against the boats that choose other options… We’re running low on fresh food. No more potatoes, onions, apples, oranges, grapefruit, bread, etc. Fortunately we’ve still got plenty of freeze-dried fare that we bought from Samantha Davies of Savéol. This evening two of us ate beef and vegetables while the other two had chicken curry. It was delicious! The hardest part is judging the right dose of boiling water to put in the sachet. Joël burnt himself badly on three fingers when the boat rolled unexpectedly. The first-aid kit was very useful.We’ve also made our first bread. It was delicious! After having lost three lures and nearly losing the rod overboard—the fisherman nearly went too!—, we’ve finally managed to catch a dorado. Joël filleted it and left it to soak in the juice of about twenty lemons. Verdict tomorrow lunchtime! Up to now, the only fish we’ve caught were the flying fish we found stranded on the deck in the morning. They look a bit like mackerel but with wings. We often see them flying just above the surface of the water when they are being chased by larger fish. We’re beginning to get an idea of our arrival date. Not before 27 December in Barbados. We’ll spend Christmas at sea.”
“We’ve spent several nights with the sails hanging limp and the blocks being lifted by intermittent gusts which send them crashing back on to the deck. The daily weather files tell us we’re in the trade winds but the reality is very different. Luckily, a light wind has allowed us to keep the spinnaker flying and, in conjunction with a slight swell, we’ve been able to get a full night’s sleep. The heat today is oppressive and we despair of arriving. We’ve also had a dip in the sea, every one of us. A score of dolphins joined us and then we saw a solitary petrel [a deep sea bird] more than 1,000 miles from the nearest land.[…] Before the start of the race we estimated that the fastest boats would sail 200 miles a day and arrive in Barbados today.We hoped to join them five days later, with an average of 150 miles a day.In the last three days we’ve covered barely 130 miles in twenty-four hours. We need to make some fine runs of 160 miles a day to make up our deficit.”
