Stormy and uneven trade winds. Alberto Bona goes straight, descends and delays the approach towards the North of the island, which he will have to circumnavigate before reaching the finishing line. The 7 o’clock check showed him in eighth place, with 306 miles covered yesterday and 57 in the last four hours; still 623 miles to go. Today and tomorrow will be field days for the Class40 IBSA which, after the powerful upwind, now faces cross waves and fickle winds.
As for the race, two Italians among the top ten at the Route du Rhum have never been seen before, as also emphasised yesterday by Giovanni Soldini, the Italian navigator who inspired and coached the next generation of ocean sailors: Alberto Bona and Ambrogio Beccaria (or B&B, as the press started calling them), currently holding an eighth and a solid third position, respectively.
Another peculiarity of this edition is the speed of the Class40s compared to the IMOCAs: despite a 20-foot difference in boat length, thanks to the particular conditions of this edition of the RDR the smaller Class40s managed to sail on a more direct and faster route, making up time on the bigger IMOCAs.
Speaking of IMOCAs: yesterday saw the victory of Linked Out, while today at 3:41 am, just before dawn, Justine Mettraux crossed the finish line, the first woman of the regatta to do so. This morning at 7:00 am the sailors still racing were 93; 19 had already arrived, a number destined to grow substantially today, with a dozen further finishes.
While Alberto’s team is landing in Guadeloupe, according to the data Alberto Bona and the Class40 IBSA will still need 48 hours of navigation to complete this wonderful feat.
