Weather change
The sun rises on the 4th day of the Atlantic Challenge. The show is beautiful, but cold! After a still relatively fast night, the wind is dropping as expected and so is our speed. We go under solent and the wind turns. Colombre XL, our Class40, finishes upwind and the comfort on board suffers. The long flat slides downwind give way to a lying boat and chopped movements in the sea. I need to find the right reflexes at the helm to avoid driving stakes into every wave. The pain I was already feeling for the boat at each impact while cruising is multiplied tenfold on the "empty" hull of an offshore racing yacht that resonates from the keel to the masthead.
Bay of Biscay, here we come!
The approach of civilization is being felt. The first to welcome us to the Bay of Biscay are the dolphins. Almost absent since leaving the Azores, they arrive in packs to celebrate this moment. The devices capture some splashes in the delicate exercise of the dolphin pirouette shot!
Another welcome, which requires greater vigilance, we cross the rail that leads from Cape Finisterre to the tip of Brittany. Between a ro-ro ship with a shoe box profile and a container carrier, we encounter more than a dozen ships without having to change course by chance.
Under pressure from competitors
Every hour, the ranking is irrefutable: our best enemies are getting closer to our transom. Edenred and Athena collect miles with each update of the positions. Tension is rising a little on board and Charles-Louis is looking for explanations. The boat's performance is below the theoretical polar values (NDLR: theoretical target speeds corresponding to the best performance of the boat at a given speed for a given wind). With small adjustments, the bleeding is stopped. Was there a difference in sail or weather? We won't know, but the risk is under control. I can imagine the tension on board during a regatta in contact for several dozen days as a stopover in the Volvo Ocean Race!
Last tack?
The arrival in La Rochelle is expected during the night from Saturday to Sunday. Charles-Louis, who does not know the surroundings of the port of La Rochelle, questions Benoît and myself about the seabed. The routing leads to the north of the island of Ré and arrives around low tide. Will we have to go in circles after crossing the finish line to wait until we have enough bottom in the channel for our 3-metre draught? The future will tell..
After having crossed many trawlers over submarine reliefs with a sound more Breton than Charentaise, such as "Canyon du Blavet" or "Canyon de l'Odet", the sea is once again empty. Only one bird visits us while landing in the cabin! stable in the afternoon at around 20 knots, the wind seems to be dropping. At around 16h UTC, Charles-Louis decided to turn, heading for La Rochelle. We hope to take advantage of the changeover before our front competitors who left between Ile d'Yeu and the land and be able to cut the cheese. Are we going to do a robbery? Excitement rises and smiles light up on Charles-Louis and Benoît's faces...
