Nouvelles du bord – Vendredi 10 mai 2019

Miranda Merron - Campagne de France

“It's a steep learning curve. First involuntary backdown during the starting sequence, therefore late at the start. Halvard and Jeff had jumped off into a RIB a few minutes before and suddenly I was alone on board without the manual. Things are going slightly better even if there is much room for improvement!
Very light night and not much more now which is great for working out how the boat works... 
En francais plus tard.

Miranda”

Pip Hare – Superbigou

“Quite a calm first night, actually, it was good, it was just easing me into it. Everything feels fine. This morning I’m up, I’ve got three sails up, spinnaker, jib and a main. It got really light in the night, so put the spinnaker up in the dark, which was quite a hard thing to do because there was a lot of other boats around and loads of things to think about, and I was in kind of half a decision not to put it up, just to play it safe, not take any risk, just get my first night out of the way, but there was part of me that just thought “well, I don’t want to be left for dust, so it really has to go up”. So I chose quite a small spinnaker and then I just thought about the task and broke it down. It took me quite a while, but I just did everything slowly, steadily and I had a really bright torch so I was just checking every single detail. There was loads of backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards. Walking up and down the boat, I’m getting quite a few steps in, which is unusual for sailing – but I guess it is a big boat! I managed to sleep as well, which was incredible. Literally for 15min at a time to begin with and in-between I was just checking everything and in the early hours of this morning, I actually slept for about an hour – and miss the time that I should have gybed actually, which is not the end of the world as we’re going along quite nicely now. I’m feeling good, I’m about to have my first porridge and a cup of tea – and all’s right with the world.”

Maxime Sorel – V and B – Sailing Together

« Je réalise un début de course correct. Je suis bien dessus. Je n’ai pas beaucoup dormi car il fallait toujours être sur les écoutes et surtout faire attention aux nombreux passages des cargos au large d’Ouessant. Nous nous ne sommes jamais arrêtés mais il n’y a pas eu beaucoup de vent cette nuit. Je ne m’attendais pas à être aussi bien placé au classement. Dans ces conditions, le différentiel de vitesse entre mon voilier et les bateaux à foils n’est pas important. Il va falloir maintenant que je prenne le rythme et que je m’accorde du repos. Je ne me suis pas beaucoup alimenté depuis le départ. C’est une chose que je dois faire. J’ai hâte d’être entre les Scilly et le Fastnet, il y aura moins de trafic et je pourrai recharger mes batteries ».  

Manuel Cousin – Groupe Setin

« Tout va bien à bord de Groupe SETIN, nuit avec très peu de vent. J’ai dû dormir une demi-heure en tout sur la nuit mais ça va nickel ! Je suis très heureux de mon départ et de ces premières heures de course. Cette remontée vers le Fastnet s’annonce coriace et tactique ! J’ai été longtemps bord à bord avec Damien d’APICIL cette nuit. Changement de voile pour le J1, le vent est un peu rentré ce matin. Bises à tous ! »

Photo ©Ari Huusela