Start date

Hardly a classic Transat Jacques Vabre, this one, since it no longer crosses the Equator to reach Brazil, but takes the boats into the less well-known waters of the Caribbean Sea.
And the weather seems to have followed suit, since the met forecasts for week 1 of the race don’t look all that conventional either. To begin with, the start has taken a route to the North of the depression that’s been drenching us for the past 2 days.
 

We won’t be sorry to see the back of that! On the other hand, it’s made the situation in the early hours of the race a little uncertain, since the wind, as you can see, is weak easterly one at Le Havre, and then strong northerly at Cherbourg. It’s a contrasting situation. The weather isn’t always that reliable . So start checking on the Web to find out what’s really going on.
So, we’ll be reaching on our way out of the Channel, possibly even with the spinnaker up, and we’ll have to get our sea legs quickly because tonight the wind will be freshening fast, and there will be a first transition as we come out of the Channel, after a stretch of fairly heavy seas.
As always at the Pointe de la Bretagne, in the autumn season, between two depressions you see a slight anticyclone rise in pressure. I know, Bretons will tell me you don’t often get anti-cyclones off Brittany in the autumn!
Still, I can prove it with an isobaric map furnished by the German Met Office. That’s the forecast for Monday afternoon. The crew will be on the same longitude as Ushant if all goes well. And that’s where things get complicated…

The depression perched right at the top has sent a broad cold front (that’s the blue teeth) to nip off the anticyclone. And there aren’t many isobars at the exit to the Channel. That means no wind, a residual sea, and a choice with serious implications for the future: do we go to the left, or to the right of the anticyclone? A route close to the direct route, with a succession of depressions? Or the trade winds and the South?
 

Now, to the final picture, just to show that computers and route-charting software aren’t the whole story, because since yesterday, in 4 succeeding met charts our route planners have proposed the 4 routes you see here. One takes us to the same latitude as Ireland, while the other goes down as far as Gibraltar.
Take you chance, and good luck!

Philippe Legros