[Source: Groupama Sailing Team] Franck Cammas and his men are on the pace and having a ball!
In his message this morning, Yann Riou discusses the first few hours of sailing, the encounter with “Alberto” and the numerous manoeuvres which have punctuated the race since the start aboard the French boat!
Having spent the first 24 hours in the Gulf Stream and thus quickly gaining ground to the North, we were propelled towards the North-East by a tropical storm which answers to the surprising name of “Alberto”.
In fact, for the past 36 hours, we’ve been under the influence of what is a depression created to the North of Florida, which is moving slowing towards the North-East.
The gameplan has consisted of getting closer to its centre, without getting caught in its clutches, by optimising our angle in relation to the wind. We’ve pulled a more inspired move than our rivals as far as that’s concerned, since we’ve managed to open up some substantial separation thanks to a gybe made a few hours earlier.
Thunder storms on the horizon, from onboard Groupama Sailing Team during leg 7 of the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12, from Miami to Lisbon. Photo copyright Yann Riou / Groupama Sailing Team
It’s a pretty fine manoeuvre, but ultimately it’s likely that the impact will be fairly limited. Indeed we’ve making headway faster than Alberto and in so doing, we’re closing on the high pressure with less gradient and hence less wind, which is favouring those at the back of the fleet.
As such we’re expecting to see our rivals closing on us over the coming hours. So no big deficits then, but still a slight edge – we hope – and the satisfaction of having sailed well.
To achieve that, no effort was spared, and the day was packed with sail changes, tacks and gybes. The rhythm of the first 48 hours of racing is somewhat different to the relative monotony of the last leg.
The comfort is different too, since we’re being subjected to the inherent dampness of sailing in breezy conditions on a Volvo Open 70, spiced up by the discomfort of squalls and other storms dished up by Alberto. Solely the temperature has dropped significantly, which is rather nice, because living in a carbon oven is okay for a while, but when your forehead begins to smell cheesy, you soon get tired of it.
However, all that is doubtless behind us. We’re now making headway at 31° North, and we’re going to continue to climb northwards for a while, as the great circle route takes you to 40° North… In this way, you’re never far off a hot spell in summer in the North Atlantic, but the worst is doubtless behind us now!
It’s 0300 UTC and we’ve still got around twenty knots of breeze at an angle of 90 degrees, and we’re making heading at 20 knots on flat seas.
Have a good day,
Yann
Position of the competitors in the Volvo Ocean Race on the seventh leg from Miami – Lisbon at 0700 UTC on 22/05/2012
1. Groupama 4 – 3,078.5 miles from the finish
2. Puma – 26.0 miles astern of the leader
3. Telefonica – 32.5 miles astern of the leader
4. Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing – 44.8 miles astern of the leader
5. Camper – 48.4 miles astern of the leader
6. Team Sanya – 52.8 miles astern of the leader