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05.05.2010 Back to news

Total calm

Cruel is the life of a sailor. Similar to the isobars, the morale on board Groupe Bel is up and down. Having left Tenerife in last position after their week-long technical stop, Kito de Pavant and Sébastien Audigane really took off on their north route and moved up in the ranking from 25th to 11th place in six days! They were even twice awarded the best time performance in 24 hours. However, things have seriously deteriorated for our northerners. Held back by a calm-creating area of high-pressure, they have come to a stop; while down south, most of the pack is beginning to accelerate.

Following calculations, the first competitors in this 10th Transat AG2R-La Mondiale race should arrive in Saint-Barth in roughly six days. There are more than 2,000 kilometres to sail and although the race is not over, the picture is not very inspiring for Kito and Seb. Caught in an area where the trade wind has petered out, our duo are grinning and bearing it in "conditions that are more favourable to sun tanning than racing" says Groupe Bel's skipper ironically.

Radio contact with Kito:

"A calm-creating high pressure ridge has closed in on us. The weather is beautiful and it's hot, however, the forecast leaves us with little hope. We will be quite far behind the first at the finish. In relation to food, we may find ourselves a little short, but the vital thing is water, and we have enough of that. We knew that we were taking risks by choosing to go north, but we had the choice of staying behind everyone or trying to cover fewer miles than the others by attempting another option. This is what we did and, up to yesterday, the forecast was good to us. What gives me great pleasure and infuriates me at the same time, is that the racers who we were with in the first week, before our accident*, i.e. Banque Populaire, Brit Air, Cercle Vert and Savéol, well they're going to win."

Radio contact with Seb:

"We are downwind with a wind speed of 2.5 knots, with gusts of 3 knots and the swell is preventing us from keeping on our spinnaker. When we chose this option, we really thought that we could make something of it, but the weather charts have deteriorated. The calm has closed in on us and we are having difficulty in crossing it. We had a really great first week of racing, in contact with the leading pack and then that whale broke our pace. We then attacked in the trade winds but the windows have closed. So, we are taking all this philosophically. Since the whale, we have not seen any fish, only a few birds and above all lots of pieces of plastic. 10 years ago, I had the same weather conditions in the same place with my brother Nicolas. In the end, we had no more water and nothing to eat. We arrived in a dreadful state. In this instance, we should be OK. If we watch our supplies we'll have all we need."

*A collision with a whale (on 26/04) before the Canaries damaged the starboard rudder which was changed in Tenerife.

Ranking on Tuesday 4 May at 15:00 (GMT+1):
1 - Cercle Vert – Morvan/De Broc 1178 miles from Saint-Barth
2 - Brit Air – Le Cleac’h/Delahaye 20.9 miles from the leader
3 - Banque Populaire – Grégoire/Véniard at 24.9 miles
3 - Agir Recouvrement - Hardy/Maslard at 25.3 miles
2 - Savéol - Attanasio/Davies at 26.5 miles
6 - Gaspe 7 – Brault/Koch at 36.8 miles
7 - Save the Rich - Bouvet/ Bestaven z at 44.7 miles
8 - Crédit Mutuel de Bretagne - Troussel/Rouxel at 63.6 miles
22 - Groupe Bel - De Pavant/Audigane at 218.6 miles

Full ranking: click here