If yesterday on Monday July 3rd, after 8 days 0 hours and 31 minutes of racing, MACIF (François Gabart) became the big winner of this first edition of THE BRIDGE by crossing the famous Verrazano-Narrows Bridge at 1.31pm local time, later in the night IDEC SPORT took the second place of the Centenary Transat, after a tough final with very little wind and a very strong upstream flow. Francis Joyon and his four crew members - Alex Pella, Gwenole Gahinet, Sébastien Picault and Quentin Ponroy - crossed the finish line just after midnight, at 12.09 am (6.09 am in France) on Independence's Day, the national holiday, .
The five IDEC SPORT sailors finished the East to West race after 8 days 11 hours 9 minutes and 3 seconds of racing. They traveled 3484 miles at a 17.16 knots average between Saint-Nazaire and New York. Sodebo Ultim' (Thomas Coville) is expected at sunrise in New York, and logically will take the third place a few hours behind IDEC SPORT.
« We are four miles away from the finishing line and we just gybed again. IDEC SPORT slides under gennaker with very little wind. There are a few people on the water, but not that much traffic. There are lights everywhere, airplanes, helicopters, Fireworks... It looks like we are back to civilization! » tells Gwenole Gahinet on Tuesday morning, July 4th at 3:00 UTC.
While the big red trimaran finishes downwind after a crossing completely close-hauled by the Northern route, Thierry Briend speaks in a clear and toned voice, reassured and reassuring, after his fall during the night of Sunday on July 2nd while he was at the helm of Sodebo Ultim’: « I'm still lying down. I still have pain in the neck, but overall, I am good. It's been a day and a half since I cannot do anything... I'm a bit useless. » The fastest solo trimaran around-the-world, travels in erratic and light winds on very calm sea and approaches New York which he should reach in the morning if the wind does not completely drop. For Actual, navigating starboard tack in a wind of 20 knots and 430 miles from New York, it's still a little early to give an estimated arrival time. Samantha Davies, the Navigator on board, says this morning that as the European and American weather predictions are too different concerning the landing in "the city that never sleeps", a precise ETA is still too random, especially as the wind is likely to remain light until the end.
They said :
Thierry Briend (Sodebo Ultim’) : « I'm still lying down. I still have pain in the neck, but overall, I am good. It's been a day and a half since I cannot do anything... I'm a bit useless but well surrounded, and the crew is very caring. We have calm conditions to finish. There is very, very little wind, and these are the last quiet and nice moments together. We are below the 50 miles and we should arrive in the morning if the wind stays at the same level. Currently I am watching some fireworks through the window. »
Sam Davis (Actual) : « We are good. We're close-hauled with the latest Gulf Stream currents and a bit of sea. There are 20 knots of wind and the boat is doing well. We are starboard tack and the wind remains unstable due to the warm waters of the Gulf Stream. Today, we have a day of transition and we are not going to get a lot of wind. We must find the best route with close-hauled and downwind, and use the current that can help us reach our goal. The crew was very happy when I told them we were nearly finished. I hope that we will be able to arrive in New York directly. It is difficult to indicate a precise ETA as the weather forecasts do not provide the same information, but it should be late in the day on Wednesday, 5th. We'll do everything to get near the Liberty statue at the time of the sunset, but it is not sure. We'll see tomorrow how it goes. Everyone is in great shape and Davy (Beaudart) is outside and he is flat out, Yves (Le Blevec) is on stand-by, and the others are resting. »
Gwénolé Gahinet (IDEC Sport) : « Right now, we gybed in very light wind of about 5 knots to avoid the shoals near the channel. " The wind had subsided gradually, and we went from J1 to the gennaker. There are a few people on the water, but not so much traffic. There are lights everywhere, airplanes, helicopters, Fireworks... It looks like we are back to civilization! We're in a good state even though we are not rested. We managed rather well the five shifts and it was quite nice. It has worked fine. There's still the accumulated fatigue and we'll feel it when arriving on land and especially tomorrow. »