The Globe 5.80 Transat qualifier was cancelled on 4 November, but all six boats were still at sea on Thursday night, working their way back to Lagos through the same light airs that slowed them on the way out.
At 22:00 UTC Origami was closest, 35.8 nautical miles from Marina de Lagos but making just 0.2 knots. Meraki was 92.5 nm out, and the other four were between 125 and 149 nm away. A south-easterly is forecast to fill in over Friday and Saturday, and the boats will want to make the most of it before the southerly builds on Sunday.
Where are the Globe 5.80 Transat yachts now?
These are straight-line distances to Marina de Lagos from the tracker at 22:00 UTC on 5 November, with each boat's average speed over the previous four hours.
Origami (Dean Frost and Lee McCarthy, UK): 35.8 nm, 0.2 knots
Meraki (Bruce Payne, Australia): 92.5 nm, 0.9 knots
Trekka (Yi Qun Liu, China): 125.2 nm, 1.7 knots
Inimini (Matthew Freestone, UK): 125.8 nm, 1.9 knots
Flow (Viivi Moisio, Finland): 136.2 nm, 3.4 knots
Capucinette (Katherine Urpani, Malta): 148.6 nm, 2.9 knots
In the 26 hours to Thursday night each boat cut between 49 and 58 nm off its distance to Lagos, Flow the most.
When will the fleet reach Lagos?
That depends on how soon the breeze arrives. This is our reading of two of the free models on PredictWind, its own PWAi model and GFS. The boats are heading north-east, so a south-easterly puts the wind on the beam, and a southerly brings it aft.
Friday, about 17:00 UTC. Still light. Both models give about 7 knots from the south-east to south-south-east along the route, and about 9 knots from the south-east closer to Lagos.
Saturday, about 12:00 UTC. The breeze fills in. Where the main group was on Thursday night, PWAi gives 10 knots from the south-east and GFS 9 knots. Closer to Lagos both show 11 to 12 knots from the east-south-east.
Sunday, about 08:00 UTC. 15 to 18 knots from the south-east to south along the route and off Lagos.
Sunday, about 21:00 UTC. 20 to 22 knots from the south to south-south-west. Those are average speeds, so gusts will be stronger and the sea will build.
At a steady 4 knots towards Lagos, the four boats furthest out would need 31 to 37 hours. If Friday stays light, the slowest of them may not be in until late Saturday or early Sunday. Origami and Meraki have far less to cover and should be in well before then, once they have wind.
One bar left on the motor
The race has posted a short video from the Origami crew, filmed in the calm. The wind had gone to nothing and it was raining. The sea behind him is glassy, and nothing, he says, is happening at all.
The boats carry electric outboards, and Origami's battery is down to its last bar, so the crew expect to be bobbing about for quite a while. One follower suggested they might be wishing they had packed oars.
It is a slower trip home than the one they set out on. When Origami left Lagos on 31 October she was flying a big green and yellow spinnaker.
A post on Katherine Urpani's Facebook page, written from Marina Rubicón, says the marina is lonely without the fleet. It also notes that the calm belies the storms on the way, but that the front should help blow the boats back to port before the worst of it.
When will the Globe 5.80 Transat restart?
Go Boating interviewed race founder Don McIntyre in Lagos on 4 November, after he called the fleet back. Our full interview covers the two storms and his reasoning.
The Transat will now start from Lagos and sail direct to the National Sailing Academy in Antigua, skipping Lanzarote. McIntyre is aiming for Saturday 14 November, but only with a suitable forecast. "We wouldn't start if it was another screaming southerly," he said.
The roughly 400 miles the boats will have sailed by the time they are back in Lagos will count as a shortened qualifier, and all six have been accepted for the Transat. McIntyre always saw the first leg as a passage, not a contest. "It's a voyage, it's not a race," he said.
He also told us how the news went down at sea. Katherine was the last to turn because Capucinette's Starlink had a fault and she did not hear until she called in. Bruce Payne, keen to see Lanzarote, had to be overruled. And Dean Frost was sure the first WhatsApp message was a scam until the satellite phone and tracker messages confirmed it.
Meet the skippers
Read our profiles of Viivi Moisio and Flow, Yi Qun Liu (Yves) and Trekka, Katherine Urpani and Capucinette, Matthew Freestone and Inimini, Bruce Payne and Meraki, and Dean Frost, Lee McCarthy and Origami.
For the cancellation itself, read our Day 6 report. The Globe 5.80 Transat is a sister race to the Golden Globe Race, which Go Boating follows every day.
