2015 Transat Jacques Vabre - Day 5

by Juliette Lucking on 31 Oct 2015 Transat Jaques Vabre - Last night, at the General in Paris, more than 70 people: families, sponsors and friends, gathered together for Eric Bellion and Sam Goodchild, very proud of the two skippers' performance over the last five days.

A telephone session was organized with our skippers at 6pm GMT, during which Eric confirmed they had entered a third weather depression even more virulent than the previous ones:

'We're off the Azores, the wind blows from the Southwest at over 35 knots and it will carry on going up during the night and orientate itself West-Northwest until tomorrow late morning... We are under three reefs and J3 and we are shaken. But all is well. From the beginning we get full moon nights and we appreciate it more than ever!'

This morning, the gap between the current leader in the IMOCA class and Stand as One had widened. The leading quartet have managed to catch the wind of the depression Stand As One suffered.

Eric and Sam keep in 10th place, around 435 nautical miles from Banque Populaire VIII, still wiping a starboard wind of 25 knots on average.

The day was marked by a new abandonment, that of adopteunskipper.net, victim of a technical problem at the lower starboard running backstay (cable that holds the mast). One can easily imagine the night that the skippers have just spent at sea. Despite the conditions, Eric and Sam’s morale is good.

Thank God it's Friday! The conditions should improve from this evening. Our skippers will finally be able to abandon their neoprene suits and move towards the South.