Gaining back ground

Jean-Luc van den Heede makes the most of the northeasterly trades

Day 114
Position at 1300: 19°23N / 27°33W
Wind 25 knots from ENE, moderate sea.
Temperatures: day 25°C / night 17°C / sea 22°C
Distance covered in the last 24H: 311 miles.
To the finish 2,301 miles.
Lead over Monnet 25 days and 11 hours.

Hi there,

The North Atlantic is currently allowing me to take back what its southern half and the Doldrums took away from me! In fact, the NE trade winds are powerful to the same extent as those in the south were weak. I would have liked the opposite, as with a wind coming from behind I need more wind than with a beating wind. But I shouldn't complain too much, as over five days, I've gained back one and a half days over Philippe Monnet!

The forecasts are very encouraging and I think I may well reach the finish sometime between Wednesday 10 March (28 days ahead at 8 a.m.) and Friday 12 March (26 days ahead at 8 a.m.). That would allow me to be back in Les Sables d'Olonne at the weekend or at best with Friday evening's tide and at worst with Sunday morning's... which is an extraordinary and very pleasant chance occurrence!

As planned, I did some touring around the Cape Verde Islands yesterday. I got quite close and sailed on the windward side of Fogo to avoid losing the wind off Santiago. These volcanic islands are very high (2829m) and I took the same photo as I took on the way down with Fogo's crater emerging out of the clouds. Indeed, I passed between these two islands on the outward leg, so crossed my own path from the 17th November 2003. It had been quite some time since I'd seen houses, roads and cars. So you can see, I'm slowly readapting myself to getting back to civilisation!

See you tomorrow,

JL VDH

A day with Boulgom, the cuddly toy from Bernard, Pauline, Jean Philippe, Pierre, Anne Laure and Mariette.