Holding pattern

Light winds for Jean-Luc van den Heede

Day 101. Position at 1300: 8°39'S / 3°06'W
Wind: 17 knots from SE. Slight sea.
Temperatures: day 23°C / night 15°C / sea 23°C
Distance covered in the last 24 hours: 221 miles.
To the finish 4,514 miles.
Lead over Monnet: 26 days and 10 hours.

Hi there,

I've just crossed the latitude of Luanda in Angola. That gives me the chance to say 'hi' to a team from my partners, Celerant Consulting, which is on a mission in this country for a French company.

In terms of my longitude, I've headed a little further west, and I've just crossed the border which separates Ghana from the Ivory Coast, but if you go back to the northern hemisphere, it means I've just passed the longitude of Les Sables d'Olonne and before tomorrow, that of Ushant. It almost feels like I'm in home territory, doesn't it?

As far as the weather is concerned, there's nothing going on. In the morning and in the evening the wind abates, so my daily averages aren't as good as I would like in these trade winds, which are too light for Adrien. Fortunately, for the moment, they are no worse than Philippe Monnet's, so the gap between us isn't really changing much. Try as I might to tell myself that he was still way behind in the Indian Ocean at this point, my racing nature is never satisfied with the gap between us, so I would like to increase it still further...

See you tomorrow,

JL VDH

A day with the cuddly toy from IFREMER, stowed on Adrien by Idée d'image.