The trade winds are tentatively returning to the Atlantic after twelve days of depressions, squalls and dead calm that have tested every fleet in this Route du Rhum - Destination Guadeloupe. Nobody is getting carried away, though. The Azores high has finally found its bearings, with pressure near 1022 hPa on Friday, rebuilding east to south-easterly winds on its south-western flank. But with so many boats sailing unusually northerly routes, that means reaching and close-hauled work rather than the downwind surfing the fleet had hoped for.
In the IMOCA class, Nico d'Estais on Café Joyeux is not complaining. Ninth overall and the leading daggerboard boat in his category, he is less than 200 miles from Pointe-à-Pitre and making close to 20 knots, with Arnaud Boissières on APRIL Marine around 70 miles behind. "It's nice to finish in these conditions. At least it'll feel like we did the Route du Rhum and not the English Transat," he said. "I'm at 115 degrees to the wind, fighting towards the northern tip of Guadeloupe. It's great, it's fast, but it's still a pretty brutal finish." D'Estais is expecting to arrive almost exactly eleven years to the day after his Mini Transat 6.50, and he is not easing off with Cali's foiler closing from behind.
In Class40, Achille Nebout on Amarris still leads, with Guillaume Pirouelle on Sogestran - Seafrigo chasing hard and a pack pushing from behind. Winds of 12 to 15 knots have brought some order back to the fleet. Pierre Leboucher on Institut Imagine described days of two speeds entirely: calm by day, "intense" by night, with wind swinging from 5 to 13 knots and shifting 60 degrees without warning.
Not every story from the fleet is about tactics and wind angles.
Axel Tréhin on Exalt suffered severe chest pain, breathing difficulty and a high fever earlier in the week. Working with the race doctor, a pneumothorax was ruled out, with the diagnosis now pointing to pneumonia. He is on antibiotics and hoping to keep racing to the finish. Irish sailor Pamela Lee on #Empowher, already forced into a stopover in the Azores, has lost both her primary and backup wind instruments. "I'm sailing completely blind," she said. "It's incredibly frustrating."
Elsewhere, there have already been finishes to celebrate. Damien Seguin, sailing Arkéa - Handicap International, won the Vintage Multi category just before 9.30pm. Laurent Etheimer on Fifty Fifty and Charlie Capelle on Acapella - Proludic - La Chaîne de l'Espoir are preparing to resume racing from Lagos, Portugal, and Mohammedia, Morocco respectively, having sheltered from a tropical depression.
The Ultims have all reached Pointe-à-Pitre. Basile Bourgnon has won the Ocean Fifty class and Corentin Horeau the IMOCA class, while the Vintage Mono battle remains open. In Vintage Multi, François Guiffant on We Explore and Marc Guillemot on Dazeilad - MG5 Wellness Training are fighting for fourth, with Florian Gueguen on Graine de Courage also in the mix. Guiffant, sailing a catamaran built partly from linen fibre, has used the crossing to continue plankton sampling for a science programme. "I'm hyper happy to be here," he said.
