Transat AG2R: Slide southwest continues

Cercle Verte continues her split north, as Artemis moves back from the south

Chart courtesy of Expedition/Tasman Bay Navigation Systems and GRIB (GFS model) from PredictWind

Positions at 0930 UTC:

The slide southwest continues in the Transat AG2R. Gildas Morvan and Charlie Dalin on Cercle Verte continue to lead, but they haven't continued southwest as much as the bulk of the fleet with 78 miles of lateral separation between her and Nacarat, which continues to lead the charge furthest south. Strange things are happening with the leaderboard with Nacarat now 665 miles south of the great circle route between the Canaries turning mark and the finish line in St Barts and as a result of this Michel Bothuon and Simon Troel on Les Recycleurs Bretons have managed to pull into second officially, despite being some 23 miles behind Nacarat in the charge southwest.

Sam Goodchild and Nick Cherry on Artemis has given up on their berth furthest to the south and have fallen in behind the southerly group. Thierry Chabagny and Christopher Pratt on Gedimat have now taken over as the boat furthest south.

The question still remains over when to gybe northwest to the finish line. To the south the forecast still continues to show more breeze while to the north the wind is set to veer into the southeast and go light.

Gildas Morvan from Cercle Verte explained their strategy: "Last night the wind started to shift around. We played with the wind, and gybed from starboard to a few times. The game was to exploit the wind shifts. Currently, we are heading south in 15 knots of wind from the east - the direction is good and stable allowing us to sail faster. To reach the waypoint where we'll gybe we still have to get south and it is still two days away. We'll be sailing on port for a further 48 hours."

From Nacarat, Erwan Tabarly said: "We chose a more southerly option while Cercle Verte is shaving the anticyclone closer. Certainly, we should have more wind and thus go faster. Over the rest of the fleet we have a small custion of 30 miles. That does not mean that we can relax. How the anticyclone moves will be crucial. So we except there to be several gybes ahead still. I am not surprised at the choice of Gildas, but he must expect to go through difficult times with little wind. We've decided to make a wider turn. Currently we have between 16 and 18 knots of wind, but we're getting ready to have some complicated days ahead. it's not obvious."

Photo below by Alexis Courcoux