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What do skippers do when the boat is at a standstill? Since the weekend, the Transat Paprec crews have had to contend with a zone of calms blocking the passage to the finish in Saint-Barth. As a result, the boats are sailing slowly, if at all, and this Tuesday, May 6, the fleet was barely making 10 knots. The leaders of the Wings of the Ocean race (at 1pm) were making only 6.4 knots. The record goes to the Skipper Macif crew, who were stuck for some time at a speed of 0.9 knots. They are now in 4th place, just behind Les Etoiles Filantes, while second-placed Cap Saint-Barth was making 5.9 knots.
Mathilde Géron tookthe opportunity to discover the little words her daughters had written to her: " Come on, Mum, you're the best! You've got to bring us the cup! Alexis Thomas got his crossword puzzle out on the pontoon. Many took advantage of the warmer weather to dry off their gear. " It's the first time we've been able to sail without our foulies since the start of the race," said Laure Galley (DMG MORI Academy). Cindy, for her part, has been waiting for this since the start of the race: "You see, we're in lycra, shorts, it's starting to get nice, we're getting closer to home." Rather quiet over the last few days, the Cap Saint-Barth crew took advantage of this lull to share their daily lives.
On Monday, Thomas and Cindy decided to clean up the boat. " We thought we'd do a bit of housework, because the boat smelled of death," explains Cindy. In the sargassum family, we look for crabs and dead fish. The sailor filmed the marine animals caught in the boat's nets. " It's a bit sad," says Thomas, as he releases a fish into the sea. "Yeah, but if it can go decant its scent further out," Cindy impatiently adds, " it's an offering to Neptune. " The two skippers ended up doing a "rock-paper-scissors" to decide which of them would finish the clean-up. "Well, now it's my turn," said Thomas with a smile.
The Breton seemed to be smiling again. "Personally, it was a bit hard to take knowing that we were going to get caught up anyway. Now that it's almost over, it's easier to get back into attack mode. In any case, the calm is here and we're taking advantage of it to look after ourselves! " For the first time on this adventure, the two Cap Saint-Barth skippers have taken out their stoves. " When it's 30 degrees, I make hot food," laughs the Breton. Cindy, for her part, is getting tired of making do with peanuts for breakfast. " I've already planned a cheeseburger and vanilla ice cream for the finish," she says. The skippers are preparing as best they can for the return of the wind: they have already spread out the sails on the pontoon to be as reactive as possible. " It's coming back strong behind us, so we're hanging on and giving it our all for the last 380 miles." For the moment, it's impossible to know whether the northerly option chosen by the Cap Saint-Barth crew is the best one. In any case, Cindy and Thomas intend to redouble their efforts to finish this adventure in style. There are just a few more complicated days to go, but the best is yet to come," says Cindy. No matter where we finish, for me, the transatlantic race is already won."
