Two days into a deepening depression north of the Azores, the stretched-out Class40 fleet is grinding through conditions so severe that every hour survived is being treated as a small victory in itself.
The weather charts, all orange, red and purple swirls, don't come close to conveying how vicious conditions actually are out there. Part of the IMOCA tail, some of the Vintage Multis, the entire Vintage Mono fleet and a large chunk of the Class40 fleet are caught up in it. On the map the boats look tiny. Helpless, almost.
"I'm sick of this depression, it's truly exhausting," skipper Guillaume Pirouelle admitted.
Some sailors saw it coming days ago. Robin Follin (Solano) was first to dive south to dodge the worst of it, and he's since been joined by a strong group: Guillaume Pirouelle (Sogestran Seafrigo), Achille Nebout (Amarris), Axel Tréhin (Exalt), Pierre Leboucher (Institut Imagine) and Guillaume L'Hostis (Alternative Sailing – Constructions du Belon). Nine boats in total now sit south of the great-circle route, clear of the depression's core. The rest, further north, are racing to skirt around it to the northwest, which still means slamming into brutal conditions.
Vigilance on board is at its limit. "Yesterday we had 40 to 45 knots sustained, when it was already forecast as strong," Pirouelle said. "I've barely slept. As soon as we manage to close our eyes, a jolt wakes us up. Mentally, all this noise and constant worry, it's exhausting."
Achille Nebout, in a video update, described conditions in similarly stark terms: "gusts of 40, 43 knots, squalls, huge instability in the wind... constantly trimming so the boat doesn't slam too hard. And there's this fear that at the bottom of every wave something's going to break. It's exhausting, exhausting, exhausting. Properly wild out here. And nothing on board is simple."
Axel Tréhin (Exalt) echoed much the same this morning. "I'm trying to get out of this without breaking everything, and I don't know how to go any slower." On sleep, he joked, "I'd quite like a lie-in before heading to the market with the family." Tréhin tends to laugh things off to keep his spirits up.
Others were harder to reach. William Mathelin-Moreaux (Patapain – Les Invincibles) and Jules Bonnier (Plastic Odyssey), both further north, as well as Pierre Leboucher (Institut Imagine) among the southern leaders, all missed the late-morning radio check-in.
Aina Bauza Roig (Alice Milliat Foundation), racing her first solo Class40 event, sits just behind the northern leaders. "I'm still learning, so I'm staying cautious," she said. "I've had 45 knots before and it went fine, but this wasn't as hard as I imagined because I'd prepared the boat well."
Corentin Douguet (SNSM, Faites un don!) came closest to calling it quits. His engine overheated, throwing off heavy smoke, "one of the worst things that can happen at sea," he said. Not long after, his J2 furler tore away.
Even so, he's not giving up. "You don't abandon a Route du Rhum for that," he said.
