Two-hander from Le Havre to Puerto Limon

The Azores exacted a heavy price. Contact with the leading trio has been broken. And Foncia has got ahead.
On the upside, the extreme weather conditions are behind us now, and the situation is much clearer and as expected. But that’s not necessarily the best news for our pair. There’ll be few opportunities to go on the attack in the coming couple of days. The trade winds are blowing between the large high-pressure system (H) stalled over the Azores and the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ), AKA the Doldrums.



The boats will be converging on the point of entry to the Caribbean Sea. Watch out for a small low system (L Stnry, i.e., stationary) that is sitting right above the West Indies, because it is causing a disturbance to the north trade winds. Also, there’ll be more wind to the south of the course in the next few days.
In short, the boats will be on a port tack (wind from the left) under a gennaker or spinnaker in variable winds between 10 and 18 knots. There will be a lot of steering to go fast and negotiate a passage between squalls. They will also have to protect themselves from the sun, because where they are now, the weather’s fine. Just look at the photo.



And we can see all this thanks to a British satellite. I’ve indicated the boat’s position (in red). The top of the cloud mass in the middle of the image is the low that we’ve been tracking for several days and which is hampering the northern trade winds. And in the sky above Veolia Environnement at present, you can see small cumulus formations that are typical of the trade winds. You know, fleecy clouds drifting across the sky.

And from this point? Here, I’ll show where they will be tracking :



So, you know everything. And no mistake about it, because it’s the computer that said it!

Philippe