The wait. Endless. Sheltered in the Azores, in the lee of the island of Faial in Horta (Portugal) to let a big depression pass in the Bay of Biscay, the skipper of Edmond de Rothschild is taking his troubles patiently while waiting for a weather window favorable to return to sea and head towards Brest. Around 35 hours (1189 miles from the finish) of navigation to finally reach the goal after spending a forty-fifth night on his boat.
His team has said it again and again, Caudrelier must not tempt the devil by venturing into an area where the winds blow at more than 50 knots with seas of 8 to 9 meters. A decision full of wisdom, especially when we see the extent of the damage to the starboard front arm of his tired boat.
The sailor revealed on Wednesday the images of the breakage that occurred around forty days ago, when crossing the first major depression of the world tour four days after casting off. Since then, Caudrelier had been careful not to reveal anything about this mishap so as not to give any information to the competition.
On a large part of the boat’s starboard front arm, we can see the fairing is completely torn off, following a violent wave impact while the winds were blowing at 45 knots with four meters of sea. “I heard a boom and the next day morning I found pieces of carbon in my net. I cut out what was left to clean and put a slat in the middle with laminations to reinforce this panel to prevent it from bending under the attack of the waves,” confided the winner of the 2022 Route du rhum.
Caudrelier still has room to spare and can still afford to wait sheltered in the North Atlantic archipelago. Thursday morning, he had a 1902 mile lead over his pursuer, Thomas Coville, who crossed the equator. Armel Le Cléac’h is 2479 miles from the leader with Banque Populaire. Anthony Marchand (Actual Ultim, at 5376 miles) and Éric Péron (at 5588 miles) bring up the rear of the rankings. The two men passed Cape Horn and began the journey up the Atlantic. For them, the road is still very long.