Wind disappears

Jean-Luc van den Heede reports from the South Atlantic

Day 95. Position at 1300: 27°08'S / 6°07'E
Wind 10 knots from SE. Moderate sea.
Temperatures: day 20°C / night 14°C / sea 20°C
Distance covered in the last 24 hours: 229 miles.
Distance to finish: 5,711 miles.
Lead over Monnet: 26 days and 9 hours.

Hi there,

Everything has disappeared again! The nice SSE wind that I'd had since rounding the Cape of Good Hope has become unreliable in strength and direction, the sun has gone in behind the clouds, which have now made the sky overcast, even the birds think I'm too far away from their homes... Only the swell remains, but that is something I could quite do without, as it stops my spinnaker from staying filled up, and it makes my mainsail swing around from one side to the other, in spite of being clamped to the boom.

In these circumstances, when the boat rolls from one side to the other, because there isn't enough wind, the strain on the rigging and sails is huge, and always worries me, as there's nothing I can do when this happens. I came around this morning to head north hoping to find more stable winds, while since the Cape I have mainly been heading west.

I'm in a hurry now to pass the latitude of Namibia and Angola!

See you tomorrow,

JL VDH

A day in honour of Françoise, Mum to Pierrot, Christiane, Jean, Guy, Francis, Eugène, Hélène, Yves, Marie Thérèse and Yolande, who has been watching down on them for exactly 50 years today.