Trekka collided with a large ship off Portugal late on Friday 6 November, breaking her bowsprit as the Globe 5.80 Transat fleet sailed back to Lagos. Her skipper, Yi Qun Liu (Yves), was not hurt, and he reached Lagos the next morning.
All six boats are now back in port after the cancelled qualifier, ahead of the southerly forecast for the weekend. The fleet is preparing for a possible restart on Saturday 14 November, this time straight across the Atlantic to Antigua, though the date is not yet confirmed.
What happened in Trekka's collision?
Race Control received Yves's call at about 22:51 UTC on 6 November. According to the race, conditions were benign: around 10 knots of wind, a smooth sea, and Trekka making a few knots under her electric autopilot.
The collision snapped the bowsprit and left the A7 sail flogging. Race Control reported no other apparent damage.
Yves picked the ship out on AIS and called it several times without reply. When he put out a Sécurité call, someone on board came back briefly to ask which station was calling. After that the radio went quiet again, despite further attempts.
He recovered the broken bowsprit, got the A7 under control and carried on towards Lagos. The tracker puts him about 40 nm south-west of the marina at the time, in waters busy with traffic rounding Cape St Vincent to and from the Strait of Gibraltar. Race Control described the ship as large, and Dean Frost, posting from Lagos the next morning, called it a tanker.
On 6 November Yves had also messaged Race Control to say he had put two reefs in to slow down and reach Lagos in daylight. By 07:00 UTC on Saturday Trekka was making 2.6 knots on a straight course, and the tracker placed her at the marina at about 10:50 UTC.
When did the fleet reach Lagos?
Origami was first home by almost a day. The tracker placed Dean Frost and Lee McCarthy at Marina de Lagos at about 10:45 UTC on Friday 6 November, not long after their video from the calm showed them bobbing with one bar left on the outboard battery.
The tracker placed the other five at the marina between 09:30 and 12:20 UTC on Saturday:
Meraki (Bruce Payne, Australia): about 09:30 UTC
Flow (Viivi Moisio, Finland): about 09:35 UTC
Inimini (Matthew Freestone, UK): about 10:40 UTC
Trekka (Yi Qun Liu, China): about 10:50 UTC
Capucinette (Katherine Urpani, Malta): about 12:20 UTC
At 07:00 UTC on Saturday the early-morning breeze was light and from the north, right on the nose. Bruce was less than 4 nm out but making only 1.6 knots as he tacked in, Viivi was tacking at 2.6 knots, and Matthew was crawling east on port tack at 1.5 knots.
Recharging in Lagos
Back in Lagos, Dean posted a photo of Origami's handheld radios, power banks, tool batteries and ePropulsion outboard battery, all lined up on charge. He wrote that the crew were recharging their batteries, in both senses, before re-provisioning for a much longer crossing. More food and more water means a heavier boat, he added, though the crew reckon they are as ready as they will ever be.
Bruce posted that it had been an interesting week of sailing. He is now de-servicing Meraki and preparing for a crossing to Antigua in one push, which he reckons could mean up to 40 days at sea.
Stories from on board
Katherine Urpani's video diary from the morning of 4 November, filmed before she knew the qualifier had been cancelled, shows what some of the fleet sailed through. After a first couple of hundred miles with almost no wind, she had what she described as a real hunker-down storm the night before: foul-weather gear on, half an hour of flat calm, then rain, strong wind and thunder. She also introduced her new steering companion, Ernest, who she says is not as good a helm as she is but does give her a break.
Her Capucinette team later revealed that she only found out about the cancellation at 3pm that day, about six hours after the rest of the fleet had turned for home. Her Starlink was down, and it took Don McIntyre some time to reach her. Her messages to Race Control also reported that her satellite phone would not charge.
Viivi Moisio, meanwhile, told Race Control the calms had given her flashbacks to the Ocean Globe Race, when the crew drifted for days in the doldrums. Her team's latest video catches the moment the wind finally arrived at sunset. She admits the day had been frustrating, says she feels very happy now the wind is here, and is looking forward to seeing family and sponsors in Lagos. Her team summed it up: Flow is flying.
Matthew Freestone, the one skipper without Starlink, kept his updates brief. His inReach message on 4 November simply said he was heading north and would see everyone in about four days.
What weather was the fleet avoiding?
On Sunday evening, with every boat in Lagos, PredictWind's PWAi model was forecasting 25 knots from the south-south-west at 35.7°N 10.3°W, close to where the main group was sailing last Thursday.
In his 6 November update, McIntyre said the heavy weather to the west might not push as far east as first expected, and that the secondary depression now looked likely to break up. Even so, he thought the fleet would have faced headwinds and serious delays, and might not have reached Lanzarote until 12 or 13 November. In ocean sailing, he wrote, the weather always wins.
Will the Globe 5.80 Transat restart on 14 November?
McIntyre says the restart from Lagos is provisional, probably on the afternoon of Saturday 14 November, and has not been confirmed. He and Jane return to Lagos from Lanzarote on Monday 9 November to review the forecast and confirm arrangements with the fleet. In our interview last week he said he would not start the fleet into another strong southerly.
We looked at two of the free models on PredictWind for about 15:00 UTC on Saturday 14 November, five days out.
Off Lagos. Both models agree on a moderate breeze: PWAi gives 12 knots and GFS 11 knots, both from the west-north-west.
Further offshore. GFS develops a deep low north of the Azores, with 25 to 35 knots around it, while PWAi has nothing like it. Near 32°N 15°W, on the way south-west towards the trade winds, GFS gives just 1 knot and PWAi 8 knots from the north-north-west.
The models disagree offshore, and McIntyre will not commit the fleet to a start until he has reviewed the weather in Lagos.
Meet the skippers
Read our profiles of Yi Qun Liu (Yves) and Trekka, Viivi Moisio and Flow, Katherine Urpani and Capucinette, Matthew Freestone and Inimini, Bruce Payne and Meraki, and Dean Frost, Lee McCarthy and Origami.
For Don McIntyre's account of the cancellation, read our interview, and for the slow trip home see our Day 7 report. The Globe 5.80 Transat is a sister race to the Golden Globe Race, which Go Boating follows every day.
