Calms and 30 knots

Slovenian Mini sailor Andraz Mihelin skipper of Adria Mobil Too shares his account of leg two of the Les Sables-Azores race

After the finish of this years Les Sables-Les Acores-Les Sables race we can definitely conclude that the race is here to stay. The enthusiasm of the organisers in both Les Sables and in Horta, backed up by a fast expanding class that craves for new events, produced an event which is a perfect addition to the biennial Transat 6.50 (Mini Transat).

The main player in the second leg was withhout a doubt the Azores high which split the fleet immediately after the start.

In team Adria4ocean we were in a good spirits before the start of the second leg and our initial routing were pretty favourable for our powerful Manuard designs. The forecast for the original start date was 25-35 knots - upwind, rain and huge swell - so I spent a good part of the night before trying to use the tricks that we practiced with our sport psyhologist Matej Tusak - mostly visualisation and relaxation techniques that allow you to simulate expected conditions in your head and help you prepare scenarios for the range of problems you come up against. It helps, but it is still not easy when you walk from your room to the marina observing huge white crests of breaking waves just in front of the bay. Then I heard the two horns from the direction of race office, which were indicating postponement of the race and the pressure was off.

Next day conditions were still a lively 25 knots but the sun made it less gloomy. The time differences after first leg were really small so I decided to play the start like in inshore races - controlling Brossard (the leg one winner), which had a good hour advantage on me.

On the gun the fleet of 58 Minis stormed across the channel under two reefs, battling confused seas caused by wind and the current. After a few hours we shook out the reefs and it was a pretty sight to see Adria Mobil 509, 510 and Brossard leading the fleet on its way north to catch the expected shift to the north.

Before night came the first group with Brossard, Areas, Bretagne Lapin, Degremont and others tacked west while me and Kristian kept north a little further until we cleared Graciosa, the northernmost island of the Azores archipelago. After the shift I put on the reacher, eased the sheets and the boat took off... In a few hours I passed just in front of Areas, then Bretagne Lapin and an hour later ended my descent south when I reached Ecover. Changing back to the jib, I pumped up the water ballast and start beating upwind with the rest.

For two days we stuck together with Peter [Lauryessens on Ecover), leading the fleet on its way west. At the time we were oblivious to the fact that the northern pack with Brossard, Bretagne Lapin and the rest had got its own private wind and had managed moved in front while we kept on our southern option suggested by our routing.

It soon became clear to me that the weather was not following the forcast pattern, so I decided to move closer to the rhumb line, also with the goal of not losing contact with the group in the north. The opportunity came next day when the wind headed and started to oscillate in 20-40 degree shifts. That meant about 20 hours of tacking on every consistent shift, but the outcome was very satisfiyng. I switched lanes wihtout losing too much in the process.

After that the Azores high organised two pretty boring no or little upwind days where I tried every trick I knew to try to get my 'fat assed' Manuard moving through the water. Despite that the leading pack extended on me at that point (fortunately without me knowing since I still couldn't receive any news on my SSB receiver). At least the RFI reception was solid, so I got the general forcast once a day.

Closing to Cape Finistere meant returning to Manuardland once again and our conditions - 20 knots beam reaching under reacher and first reef. In 36 hours I managed to get close enough to jump on the last wagon of the train of the leading five boats slowing down before the passage of the cold front.

The night before the finish found us tightly packed surfing under spinakers in increasing wind. The leading boat was Bretagne Lapin with David Sineau, who obviously decided he has had enough of the forth places and went for 'win or swim' tactics. The rest, Degremont, Areas, Brossard, myself and Ecover were following on his heels. At that point Peter Laureyssens had no more GPS or autopilot so he was out of the game for top places.

After midnight the wind rose to 25 knots, gusting over 30 so sailing was becoming increasingly fast, stressful and more and more wet. Morning light revealed the white spinnaker of Isabelle Joschke just a mile behind me. The wind was still beteween 20 and 28 knots, and the angle was becoming tighter and tighter with 50 miles to go and Isabelle started to pile on the pressure. Changing up to medium spinnaker, then shaking out the reef, left me with no option other than to follow. The boats turned into submarines and the cockpit was regulary full of watter. Fortunately the finish was just an hour away and I managed to keep Isabelle behind me - by 17 minutes to be exact. Apparently we were the only two boats to cross finish line with masthead sails.

Third place in the second leg put me third overall since David Sineau managed to make up his hour and a half deficit from the first leg.

Kristian on Adria Mobil 509 came in later in the evening first of the second pack of boats, just missing the gate at Finistere. That put him in 8th overall which rounded nicely our first real team succsess on singlehanded offshore races.