Kito : "Not unhappy to be here!"

Spared by the storm which has swept over the Atlantic in the last few days, Kito de Pavant, currently 230 miles northwest of Cascais, should reach the Portuguese harbor sometime on Saturday. After having sailed more than 3,500 miles single-handed since St Bart's, Groupe Bel's skipper decided to bring two of his loyal team members on board, Gwen Gbick and Brice de Crisenoy to finish the delivery to Port Camargue.

In a westerly between 20 and 25 knots and a rough sea, but still manageable, Kito de Pavant does not envy the position of his friends in the Transat B to B, who are about to sail up the Bay of Biscay in dantesque conditions to Lorient. In much safer weather, Groupe Bel is running downwind and even allowed herself a peak speed of 26 knots! It has to be said that Kito has decided to get to Cascais as quickly as possible, to pass the Gibraltar Strait before Sunday evening: “I had up to 45 knots, but the hardest was not the strength of the wind but its changeability. Now the sea has calmed down a little and we're surfing along nicely! I should arrive in Portugal tomorrow during the day and we are going to leave immediately afterwards. The weather window is okay until the end of the weekend, and then it gets complicated”, explained the Groupe Bel skipper at midday. Although the Atlantic is no picnic as winter arrives, the Mediterranean can also reserve a few surprises at this time of year. “By passing the strait before Sunday, we are sure to be there by Christmas! If we let the slot go by, the weather will definitely be much worse next week.” In the meanwhile, after a beautiful starry night and the return of the moon, which he had not seen for a few days, Kito is keeping an eye out: the traffic will get denser as we approach the coast!

Bravo François, watch out lads!

Between two maneuvers, Kito, whose main concern was to learn as much as possible about Transat B to B racers stuck in the storm, took advantage to congratulate François Gabart (Macif), his co-skipper in the Transat Jacques Vabre 2009, on his great win. “We followed approximately the same route on this return transatlantic crossing. He saw a small opening in the weather that the others didn't see. He chose a fine trajectory, always attacking! I am very happy for him. He hasn't wasted any time, has he? I believe that he hadn't yet sailed single-handed on his boat. That means that the guy is brilliant, but we knew that already!”

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