On the eve of the Route du Rhum start, the weather picture is far from a classic one. Instead of a long dive south to the trade winds, the routing points the fleet towards the most direct route to Guadeloupe.
The opening is straightforward. From Saint-Malo, the boats head to a gate off Cap Fréhel, then come up around 30 degrees to clear the Breton coast before settling into a good downwind run. On start day, a huge high pressure system sits over the British Isles at 1041 hPa. “That’s a pretty big high for November,” says Francesca.
The first real test comes between 3 and 4 November, with a large front to cross. “The wind does a full 180 degrees. You go from port to starboard.” Fast downwind sailing follows, with a few gybes to stay in the breeze.
After that, the forecast gets far less certain. The trade winds are weak, so most routes send the fleet north. “It’s not a really common scenario for a transatlantic race. It can make it pretty fast, because we’re taking the most direct way to the Caribbean.”
The catch is that the boats can’t simply ride ahead of the lows, as they would on a west-to-east crossing. “We need to go through them, manage them and connect to the next weather system.”
The first few days look clear. Everything after the front will come down to reading the weather as it changes.