A first night at sea after an extraordinary start...

A first night at sea after an extraordinary start...

26 June 2017

Yves Le Blevec (Actual)  : « Everything is going well onboard Actual. We had an absolutely extraordinary start! It is something that a sailor should experience at least once in their lifetime. Then, we pulled the edges along the Breton coast, passed in front of the house in bay of Quiberon, then by Teignouse, and there we navigate AU PRES, slightly behind the others. This first night was pleasant and fairly quiet with variable winds of about ten knots. We are now concentrated on the conduct of the boat and the conditions allow the crew to rest. Overall we do shifts of three hours, allowing you to sleep almost three hours in a row. »

 

François Gabart (Macif) : «That first night was pretty good along the coast of South Brittany as we positioned ourselves quite well. We are currently in an area without a lot of wind. We are with IDEC SPORT which is just under our wind. As the wind will continue to drop at sunrise the gaps should narrow, and we'll get together with the boats in sight. We did not have a very good start. On the other hand, we managed well when were got out of the starting area. We're happy with our position at the moment. Everything is fine on board and we are settling in as we do in any transatlantic race. The shifts are being set up nicely after that first night and after this evening departure rather unusual for us. »

 

Jean-Luc Nélias (Sodebo Ultim') : « The sky is gray, the sea is flat and the wind just dropped at seven knots. It's rather quiet on SOBEDO. Some are asleep, others are on stand-by and the last ones are working. I am currently on a shift with Vincent (Riou). Yesterday in Saint-Nazaire at the start, we didn't go to Northwest as we did not want to get too close to the Queen Mary 2... and we did exactly the opposite of what we had planned. In short, it was not terrible except for the images! Here, we have to cross a very unclear anticyclonic pass in an area without any gradient and therefore without wind, before touching a low-pressure front allowing us to continue our road to the Northwest.»