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Atlantic Crossing

Among the 200 or so boats participating this year, 11 were flying the
French flag, but there were also some French crew members on other
boats. Among the French, were Régis Guillemot on a fast catamaran (they
almost sank before arriving at La Palmas, but had made a temporary repair
for the Atlantic crossing) and Jean-Pierre Dick on a 60 feet yacht. These
guys were obviously not there to do cruising.

A busy week, which ended with the satisfaction of feeling ready! We were
quietly waiting for the start, while our pontoon neighbors, Brits on one
side, Swedish on the other, were briefing and debriefing: this would be a
race, and it was taken very seriously!
2- Crossing the Atlantic

The departure was planned at 12:30 pm on
Sunday November 24 for the category With our Southerly
"cruising", in which we were registered. Chris 35RS, the third smallest
Tibbs, the ARC weather expert, had told us boat at the start,
the weather situation would be complex, and
not very favorable for the departure, with the risk of very low winds,
sometimes headwind, on the direct route. He had advised the heaviest
boats to go South to find more established trade winds. He also advised us
to beware of strong and turbulent winds in close, South of the Canaries.
Before the departure, I made an estimate of our ETA with my Seamanpro
software: we were to arrive Friday December 20th at 6:00 UTC, which
meant the last day, 10 hours before the closing of the finish line. With a
curved road to the South, about
Vegetables and fruit in nets
2,915 miles long, a bit more than
the 2667 miles direct route. This
would mean for us an average trip
of 113 miles per day. Our experi-
ence of the journey to Madeira had
shown that we could hope, provid-
ed we had enough wind, up to 125
miles/day, which would make us

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