South Towards The Doldrums

Lewis Hamilton’s F1 success in Brasil has been a source of inspiration for Sam Goodchild as he races south towards the Doldrums on the Transat Jacques Vabre two handed race to Martinique via the Brasilian island of Fernando de Noronha which is still over 1100 nautical miles ahead of them.
As they enter the second week of racing since leaving Le Havre last Sunday, after a complicated few days dealing with very unsettled breeze Leyton has not repositioned to the west and the Anglo-French pair are starting to line up for their passage across the Doldrums, aided by their on shore weather expert Marcel Van Triest. Leyton is fifth this morning but the prospect of not having to make any big manoeuvres but to make best speed south is an encouraging one.

Sam Goodchild
“ It has been going OK. Yesterday morning we were tired and we had been having some speed problems against other boats. It felt like it was all a little bit like hard work. But by the end of play yesterday we had found a few things how to go faster, we had rested a bit and then Lewis Hamilton won the Grand Prix in Brasil and it was a good day. I had the shore crew giving me updates on the Grand Prix and it was obviously a difficult weekend for Lewis Hamilton and so as a Hamilton supporter I am very happy to see that it came good. I would love to see a replay but it is too expensive to download!
Tonight we have had our last gybe in the early part of the night and we have had good conditions since for rest, one on deck at a time, and so that is good when we see the Doldrums coming up ahead and we are really hoping the Doldrums are an opportunity to catch up some more miles. Time will tell. We just need to control what we can and make sure we go through at the right time. We are fortunate to have Marcel (Van Triest weather router on shore) helping us but as he said there is only so much he can do from on shore. It is just over 24 hours before we get into them and we are watching closely how the Ultimes are going, it is does not look like they are fully out of it yet.”