Le Cléac’h was west of Cape Finisterre this afternoon, crossing the thorny threshold to the Bay of Biscay in very muscular, difficult NW’ly winds and big, 7-8 metres seas.

With less than 450 miles to the finish, Le Cléac’h needs to stay focused on keeping his equipment in shape, and simply maintaining solid speeds towards Les Sables d’Olonne. Latest ETA for Brit Air is between 0700hrs and midday GMT Saturday.

With Marc Guillemot’s time compensation, there is little scope for the BritAir skipper to slow down too much.

Just as Michel Desjoyeax had some of his strongest winds – up to 52 knots – two days before he finished, so the final days for Le Cléac’h are proving some of the most testing. Two days ago he reported the worst conditions he recalled of his race and he now faces strong headwinds for many of his remaining 440 miles. An arrival on Saturday morning, or lunchtime for Le Cléac’h should be enough for him to celebrate immediately rather than have to count up the hours until the arrival of Guillemot.

Half way between Cuba and Cape Finisterre Sam Davies, GBR, (Roxy) appears to be still accumulating her margin over Marc Guillemot, (Safran). The French skipper has been painfully slow for much of the day, no doubt hindered by his sub prime sail plan – two reefs in his mainsail due to luff track damage – as he negotiates the western corner of the anticyclone. Again on this afternoon’s polls he is making just 3.9 knots, averaging seven, while Davies is plugging away nicely in the eastern route and is computed to be 257 miles ahead of Safran this afternoon. Latest weather files suggest that Guillemot should emerge into the strong westerlies this evening and accelerate significantly.

Steve White, GBR, (Toe in the Water) is now just some two and half days shy of the Doldrums and was looking forward to the breeze veering for him, to allow him to get his gennaker set. In his idle moment he has been planning furiously for the weeks after his return to Les Sables d’Olonne, looking to get his Open 60 into perfect shape as quickly as possible to return to earning its keep, as well as entering the Calais Round Britain Race in June, perhaps, he said today, taking a crew member from the Toe in the Water charity which supports, rehabilitates and motivates injured servicemen and ex-servicemen.

After repeated beatings virtually since Cape Horn, encountering one stormy low after another, American skipper Rich Wilson reported today that he was making good progress again in fast reaching conditions on Great American III.

Steve White, GBR, (Toe in the Water): Hopefully the breeze will come round a little more to the SE and that will free me enough to get the gennaker up but at the moment it is a little forward of the beam out the NE. I am still happy, it is a little monotonous I suppose but I think I have go to the point where time has lost all meaning anyway and so I can’t really tell you how long it has been like it has been. It just seems like it has been like this for ever. I have two and a bit days to the Doldrums and then it’ll be NE trades and that’ll be something a bit different. I am quite happy doing what I like doing and I am still liking it.
We are in pretty good shape really. The first thing we need to do when we get back is take the mast step off so we can weld that up, and weld the goose-neck and we will be good to go with corporate hospitality and with a bit more TLC and a decent bottom job we can go and do the Calais Round Britain Race and things like that when we get back. Touch wood we are OK.


Rich Wilson, USA, (Great American III): “We are making very good time, we have finally got a couple of those days when you can make miles properly in the right direction at good speed, so we have been making about 14 knots or so for probably the last 12 hours or so, and before that a little bit less. The last 24 hours we have been having a pretty good shot at it, which I think we needed.”
“We may back off here a little bit here, we are on the edge of a low pressure system, so there are lot of grey clouds around and some thunder clouds so we are having some surges up to 20 knots or so, sometimes they don’t necessarily help, but we are doing well. We needed to have a break in the winds we had, the heavy upwind, particularly two nights ago or three nights ago, we just pounded the boat relentlessly upwind, in 35-45 knots. It is awful for the boat, awful for the skipper and you feel awful for putting the boat through that. Trying to get to a place where you have better wind conditions. I certainly feel a lot better about beam reaching or broad reaching, going upwind into.”

Marc Guillemot (Safran):  “ I’m just arriving at the spot I have been aiming for over the past few days on the western side of the high.  I have a few tricky hours in light winds trying to get around it.  Tonight or early tomorrow morning, I should be able to get a good VMG on the direct route to Les Sables.  If the information I’ve received is correct, I should reach Les Sables d’Olonne on the evening of the tenth or the morning of the eleventh.  But as the forecasts tend to be optimistic, when you find yourself in light winds, like I have at the moment, I think it’s more likely to be the eleventh.  But as there are good winds forecast from the Azores to Cape Finisterre and Les Sables, the final stretch should go quickly.   For a few days now, since I took the decision to go around the high, I’ve been making route comparisons with Roxy, each time I get new weather info.   I’ve adjusted the polars to take into account the fact that I have to be under reduced sail.   But each time, I end up ahead of Roxy at the Azores. Armel should be picking up speed to get back to Les Sables and I won’t be far behind (after taking into account the redress), but objectively, Armel looks like keeping his place and I’ll grab the next one.  We can always hope, but it looks fairly certain for Armel.”

Sam Davies (Roxy):  “I’m sailing in 15 knots, upwind, of course and conditions are good.  There are some nice blue skies and some light high-pressure clouds.  I’m doing ten to eleven knots and am close to the direct route, so the miles are ticking by.  After that I don’t know if it’s me, who will be tackling the high or whether the high is about to tackle me.  Since the start I’ve been sailing as I see best.  I’m not watching the others too much.  Especially Marc, as he has 50 extra hours in any case, so it’s not worth worrying about that.  So I’ve stopped looking at how far he’s got.  It’s extremely difficult to calculate.  If the high moves past me quickly, I’ll come off quite well.  For now, I’m just concentrating on my speed and course on this route.” 

Armel Le Cléac’h (Brit Air) :  “ Conditions are still tough here off Cape Finisterre.  The wind and seas are still quite rough.  At least we’re moving in the right direction back to Les Sables.  I should arrive on Saturday.  Early in the morning at first light would be perfect.  But for the moment I’m not going very fast, as in these seas, we’re slamming and I don’t want to take any risks at this stage.  I can’t hoist too much sail, as the seas are all over the place.  There’s a big swell from three quarters aft and then waves hitting the side, so it’s very confused.  So as soon as we reach 13-14 knots, it’s quite violent and I can’t really go any faster.  There are squalls and the wind gets up very quickly, so it’s keeping me busy.   I haven’t had any wind vane for 3 weeks or even a month, so I don’t know the exact wind strength, but it feels like 35 knots to me.  It’s rather stressful, as the conditions aren’t ideal for the boat, so I can’t really enjoy the final hours of the race, as I have to remain focused and then, there is the shipping lane with all the cargo vessels too.”