Wednesday 17th of October.

Already 6 days at sea, Cape Verde Island in sigth...

The first prototype with Yves Le Blevec on board, passed the Cap Verde Island at 6:00 this morning.

Hervé,which was this morning in 10th position, was 100 miles from the Island. This means that he will reach and pass through the island of Santo Antao and San Vicente during the evening.

The wind is 15knots, Nord East. He must have his spinnaker on and go really quickly. On the radio this morning, he said nothing special. This should mean that nothing is brocken and that he will not stop in the island like some others skippers. By the way, the cap verdian skipper Antonio Pedro da Cruz said he would stop to say hello to his friends and family and to do so small reparations.

But where are the Cap Verdian Islands? It is a small paradise situated West of the Senegal.
These islands were discovered by Portuguese sailors in 1440. However, but without real

evidence, it seems that Romans and Carthaginian sailors have known of the existence of these islands before and that around the 12th century, Arabic sailors would have also arrived on these then deserted islands. Two years after this discovery, people started to come and live there which created a mixed race with its own culture. Free Europeans and African slaves mixed together as one people. In the same time a special dialect was born, Creole which has been a very strong link between people of future nations. Since the beginning of its history, the people of Cap Verde have seen their unique identity of highly people mixed: 80% of the population is mixed race, 17% is back and 3% is white. Little by little the Cap Verde people have assumed themselves as a nation which cumulated with national independence on 5th July 1975 after a long fight for liberation. Today the Cap Verde island is a very nice country where security, stability and social peace are very much present. It is even the fourth country in Africa for the high levels of healthcare education and standard of living.

Herve will be able to come back and visit this country later. For the moment he must head further south for him to see what looks like the Equator and the Horses latitude!

Mentally, the arrival at the Cap Verde Island is the end of the first part. Hervé divided his crossing in three: to the Cap Verde Island, after the doldrums and to the arrival in Bahia. One part is yet finished and this must be really good for his head! Now, it is really the unknow for a lot of skippers, who never went in this area. No more island, no more land, just the Atlantic in front of you.... It will be a though time... good luck Hervé.

And there is still the question of the weather:

The weather is a very important element for every sailor for obvious safety reasons. It is even more important for the racing sailor who needs to know what would be the weather conditions so that he can take the right tactical decisions.

Knowing that this topic was very important, Herve has read several books on the subject. But the best of his preparation was without doubt the participation to a weather course organised by the British mini class on the ferry from Portsmouth to Bilbao and back. During three days, he studied ferry and practical aspects on the ferry’s bridge in order to study on site all the secrets of the Bay of Biscay.
One of the particularities of the mini-transat lies in the fact that the skippers can’t communicate with the outside world. This means that Herve will not be able to receive any weather faxes, neither can he connect with the Internet to download weather information or, of course, to receive guidance by a professional forecaster.
The only weather information that Herve will be able to get is the one he can catch on his small ultra short wave receiver. There exists several radio station covering the North Atlantic and one of the most well known is Radio France International (RFI). However the organisers are aware that the crossing of the “pot au noir”will be difficult without knowing exactly where is the best place to go. They have innovated for this race by setting up a specific radio station which will transmit weather forecast only for the race.
The weather will be very different on the two legs of the Mini Transat.
The second leg starts with the trade winds up to the equator. It should be relatively easy even if the position of the yacht compare to the angle of the wind would be essential. The measure difficulty would be to go as much west as we can when going south in order to anticipate the biggest difficulty of this leg : “the doldrums” ( soon a special article on this subject).
Once the “doldrums” has been crossed there will be less than one thousand miles in the trade winds of the south Atlantic it should be rich in conditions and therefore quite quick!

 

We hope for Hervé that he will not have to wear this survival suit!

Picture taken at Haslar Marina in February , rigth after a cold channel crossing