Onboard Express
The Needles Fairway mark doubled in the morning, the 32 participants in this first stage expected to encounter weak conditions on their way to the island of Bréhat. End of their second cross-Channel. And they weren’t disappointed. An irregular westerly wind lifted the body of water only small ripples.
Fortunately, the situation improved with finally a more sustained and rhythmic breeze in the North-Westerly sector of about ten knots around 5 p.m. The latter allowing you to pick up speed towards the Channel Islands at first. These were greeted around 6.30 p.m. The sea was also getting heavier, with a westerly swell of one meter.
Conditions that delighted Loïs Berrehar (Skipper Macif 2022), then 7th, 2.8 miles behind the leader, Guillaume Pirouelle (Normandy Region): “It’s going pretty well because I’ve been in the right group since the start. Although I didn’t bargain as I wanted the Isle of Wight transition. But the road is still long. It’s nice, we are under the sun. We have a little sea and it is therefore quite unstable. We are all under spinnaker and the conditions remain manageable despite everything. Now a lot is going to happen and we will have to stay alert. There will be passages to manage with the current where you have to remain lucid. Already, I have to change the headsail to negotiate in a few moments the passage of the DST (zone prohibited to navigation. editor’s note).
In the evening, the NW’ly wind should strengthen a little more to reach 15 knots, with gusts of around twenty knots. It is therefore fast sailing downwind that will allow the first skippers to reach the mark of the Mare des Heaux de Bréhat around 1am, on this night from Monday to Tuesday.
