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(February 22, 2024; Day 47) – 2024 Arkea Ultim Challenge-Brest race leader Charles Caudrelier and the ULTIM Maxi Edmond de Rothschild have been in the Azores port of Horta since yesterday morning waiting for Storm Louis to leave the Bay of Biscay and a weather window to open to allow him to complete the final 1200 miles of the 24,400 nautical miles solo multihull race around the world which started on January 7.
Louis is the name given to a very large active Atlantic depression which is currently sweeping Europe, from the south of Ireland to Lisbon. Louis is more 1000 miles wide and almost 2000 miles from west to east.
The leading edge of the depression has been buffeting Finistère, Morbihan and inland Brittany while Louis’ tail is still smacking the coasts of Greenland. Winds are averaging 35-45 knots at the front of the system – more like 45-55 knots towards its center and the waves are between nine and 13 metres.
“The problem was I already had a big sea of 8-9 meters from the North-West, but it was quite long and quite beautiful,” said Caudrelier. “So we thought about going on – at 8-9 meters it’s not so very serious, especially if there are gaps between the waves.
“The problem was that I couldn’t go fast enough to stay in front of the second depression, I had to go at more than 30 knots and we weren’t sure I could do it in these sea conditions. So that means if I was caught by the other depression, the wind would change direction 180° and could really, really build. This is often what causes the big storms we can have. It creates a very strong wind against the sea, situation with two seas crossing each other, and that is very dangerous for boats.
“So we are moving more towards a consensus, a great wisdom even – even if we are all impatient – to wait for Saturday (Feb. 24), when we have the completely right window. We can afford to wait because we obviously looked at (second placed) Sodebo and the boats behind, and the weather situation means that they will be behind us, not very far, but between Thomas (Coville) and me there still will be an anticyclone so there is no possibility that he can overtake me in terms of boat speed performance.”
The expectation is now that Caudrelier aboard his Maxi Edmond de Rothschild could set off sometime Saturday again to finish in Brest on Monday, February 26, one day before his 50th birthday.
Thomas Coville, who has got out of the Doldrums, is now just 1830 nm from the leader, sailing upwind in weak trade winds, forcing him to sail quite some way west to enable the Maxi Sodebo Ultim 3 to advance at around fifteen knots this afternoon.
Armel Le Cléac’h, who slipped to third during his latest pit stop, is 500 nm further back and leaving the Doldrums behind. They have spread out, but should enable the skipper of the Maxi Banque Populaire XI to get away fast. Both of these chasing skippers are obviously looking at the leader, who has stopped. How much ground will they make up during his stopover?
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