At the end of each week we reflected on ‘what would you do’ with one week, two weeks etc… and up to 5 weeks in our case.  We concluded that everyone should have a chance to follow their dream or have an adventure, not just a holiday! See how much you miss your nearest and dearest… or perhaps more importantly how much they miss you! Luckily I have an understanding boss who has allowed me to carry forward 20 years worth of unused holiday! Paul faced a cross roads, with the redundancy he so craved bestowed, his new life starts soon!

Here are some of our experiences and the things we did without so when you choose your adventure you can decide how many more you want….

Some things we didn’t have

A kiss, beer, more beer, too much beer, kisses ETC!, sheets & mattress, shower, towels, running water, did I mention no alcohol what so ever, sugar, butter,…… so the order above could form a plan when we get ashore…. Maybe the shower will have to move back two places because we really smell bad, it’s a real feature of our trip… baby wipes and sudocreme (and some of Jens face wipes stolen from the weekly shop!)

No TV or mobile phone, so no texts, no radio but a VHF, we did have CD’s and the winning tunes were Dire Straits Brothers in Arms, Best of Lenny Kravitz and an old Brand New Heavies CD that’s been on the boat for ages, this helped us cope with being damp or wet almost all the time, when of course we weren't being fried by the sun! There was some pain, burns, lots of soreness, sea sickness and heat stroke but we are tanned like movies stars now!

The whole experience was a roller coaster of emotions… frustration, fear, anger, exhaustion with some joy and celebration especially Day 32 when we reached the finish and saw the girls waiting for us.

We made some good calls, bad calls and big cock ups and cant help but wonder how we would have faired if we had been on the same part of the race track as the others! We, however, unquestionably took the right decision to go south, there is a good chance we would not have made it staying north with the others, we are in awe of the guys who stayed north, in fact reflecting on anyone who has participated in a relentless, uncompromising, self imposed pursuit.

How we made it past St Barts without stopping I don’t know, the lure of beer, food and a sun bed was nearly too much too bear, luckily neither of us actually admitted how much we wanted to stop and it’s at these times when you really understand what it is to be supported, it was hugely motivating to know that so many people were routing for us from all our friends and family to the people we met in France and the college kids who ransacked the boat and the charity we support; it wasn’t just about us and we had to push on, and this was the real focus from the beginning…. We must finish no matter what! And from finishing is where the greatest satisfaction and feeling of achievement is drawn.

The relief to finish is the stillness you get from sitting down, not moving, away from the relentless pitching and rolling. This trip had very little ‘champagne sailing’ so hanging on down below was required almost all the time, and it was a sauna down below through the Atlantic and Caribbean, relieved only when sleeping by a tiny 12VDC fan on your face… virtually useless but relief never the less.

This trip was never a ecological statement but an adventure, a dream, a challenge, because we could, a selfish indulgence perhaps but as we prepared and during the race it was obvious that we could not divorce ourselves from the issue of power consumption which became ever more important and the parallels with my work and constant discussions about carbon reduction were bought to the fore.

So interestingly some basic stats for you, with auto pilot and nav systems on we consumed around 60 Watts which is around 10-20% of the normal household power consumption, so can you call Senior and Ron a typical household… perhaps not, running our tough book, screen and comms doubled our power consumption! The travel fridge added around 30 watts when running and the water maker was massively power hungry drawing over 200 watts although we only had to run this for maybe 30 minutes a day.

The long and short of it is our fuel cell was awesome and very efficient providing 60 watts continuously and enough for us to run the boat; topped up with the solar panels, we could have probably used limited IT and the water maker occasionally, as it was were we ran the engine most days for 30 mins or so to make water and top up the charge in the batteries…. (I was very happy we had 2N power redundancy, even if we would have to compromise if the engine failed we would still be able to make it. Like many, our primary charger failed but it didn’t cause too many problems but others retired with this kind of problem).

Now I’m not suggesting that everyone walks around their house with a head torch on and doesn’t wash (although my head torch didn’t leave my side and I wore it for 48 hours without taking it off!) I for one realise that I can do more to reduce energy consumption. I guess my Achilles Heel is my right foot, I love my cars and will have to work very hard to justify the next one…. You will no doubt be bored by my elongated and protracted decision making as usual!

Its interesting how WWF are passionate about the wider use of IT to enable greater carbon reduction and I look forward to understanding more about this and working with them moving forward. Of course we should embrace the obvious energy saving techniques (and I have some work to do here I admit, but I will), but it seems to me that we must also ‘think differently’ about it too, in much the same way the Keysource guys thought differently about data centre design; it's this kind of 50% power reduction that’s going to make the difference moving forward.

So as the memories of endurance fade (its funny how the mind forgets the bad things more quickly) and the for sale sign has been removed from the boat, I will reflect on the brilliant clear nights with shooting stars, jumping dolphins, giant whales and marching clouds with the awesome power and spectacle of thunder and lightning (if a little too close) and mostly how we appreciated your support, we missed all you guys and good old Blighty.

All the best,

Mike

Copyright Bruno Bouvry – Images de Mer / La Solidaire du Chocolat

Overnight though we made big gains on the two boats in front of us - Axa and Plan. Yesterday Plan was 52 miles in front - now they're 17, Axa were 43, now they're 8! We have a good buffer of 45 miles from the boat behind us so now we're just throwing everything into the last few miles - physically and mentally - every 4 hours we're straight on the email to see if our latest tactic has paid off - we have nothing to lose so are going for it.

Other than that - all's well on the boat - been very hot today so we've been steering with a jacket draped over our legs as well as long sleeved t shirts and big hats - very uncomfortable. Saw some Pelicans today - I've not seen them in the wild before and they were great - Mike's been taking the mickey out of me as I really got excited when we saw them. Also, there are loads of fishing boats here - there seems to be a mother ship and then 10 or so tiny little wooden boats, maybe 12 feet long with a guy throwing nets - weaving through them is interesting but they're all very friendly and wave as we smoke past - apparently at night they're unlit so it may be a nervous sail into the finish.

Got to get back to it - Senior's driving so I'm going to try and catch 40 winks in the cockpit before it's my turn again.......

Paul

Keysource' can be tracked live here: http://lasolidaireduchocolat.geovoile.com/

Our intrepid reporter talks to the crew of Keysource about life on board and the Magic Pants?

"It’s damp, damp, damp" comments West "Even on sunny days you manage to get wet when Worswick waits until you’re sat down to top up the ballast tank!"

Have you got all the clothing right for the conditions...? "Senior (Mike) is ok, he has about 5 bags full of stuff, and he’s got more gear than Primark!" sighs Worswick "It’s everywhere, I only have one dry bag and even that’s not full" he gloats.... "That’s not strictly true" retorts West "He’s hidden half his gear in some of my bags and in bin liners around the boat, I only have two much smaller dry bags and one carry-on which is mainly full of N+1 medicines".... "Oh N+1 again, I will spoon my eyes out if Senior mentions redundancy once more" grunts Worswick descending into his Vincent character all the time... "all the gear and no idea" barks Vincent "you just need to MAN UP and focus on the sailing, its not a bleeding fashion parade" he continues "in fairness I do have quite a lot of gear, you never know when you might need some of this stuff" argues West

"Yes it’s true; Paul does have a reputation for limited clothes... a whole Cowes week with one set! Girls dig it he says, I’m not so sure, anyway he does wear some of my gear". Really? What? "the Magic Pants" he exclaims... "even I know Paul wouldn't wear MAGIC PANTS" states a shocked reporter, who as it turns out has a candle burning for Worswick and couldn’t bear the thought of her dreams being ruined with magic pants instead of Dolce & Gabbana...

“What are the Magic Pants for?” She asks...a little too quickly... "It’s to keep your bottom dry" states West reluctantly, oh, no dreams being destroyed for our reporter now.... dare she ask more "it’s like this, you are damp for so much of the time your seat gets F**  ummm incredibly sore" a way out appears and our reporter quips hopefully "its only you then… with the sore… ummm bottom, not Paul” .... "No all he does is mope round the cabin all day with his a**e hanging out" says West exasperated.

"So he uses the Magic Pants to keep his backside dry, they are too big actually and he looks ridiculous" comments West gleefully... so how many pairs do you have? "We only have one pair and the person on watch wears them" he continues "which means changeover can be a bit complicated changing in and out of the Magic Pants, if something needs urgent attention on deck during the change it can be a bit like a three legged race!" and what happens when the off watch person is needed on deck in the rain she asks "Well you have to wear your swimming trunks don’t you, with your offshore jacket.... ridiculous but true I’m afraid".

Realizing all dreams are shattered now she probes further into the soreness!... "So how are your sores" she’s asks with too much of a smile "the only way to keep on top of this is with Sudocrem.... if you have to know!" he admits reluctantly.

Discussing the problem with the third keysource co-skipper Ian "bag" Bartlett (return leg of the Azores race this year), currently match racing in India, he comments "Yeah.... well Yeah it’s not a good vibe.... they need to get buzzing with more cream".

Keeping the flame alive, Worswick closing comment "There is nothing wrong with MY body, I'm in great shape and I wouldn’t be seen dead wearing any of senior’s (Mike) clothes"

Well the boys seem to be coping well.... well all things considered anyway!

Lady writer on the TV

Keysource' can be tracked live here: http://lasolidaireduchocolat.geovoile.com/

Basically a shift of the breeze to the right has been expected to give us a better angle to the corner, so far it hasn't materialized, Brian the routing software tells us to crack off and go fast say 20 degrees to the left of the corner and we will be lifted as the breeze shifts right and it will all end in glory, however Brian is a compulsive liar and in a pact with US marshal UGRIB to run us aground on the eastern Yucatan coast. So we have been sailing high to cover Patrice on Credit Maritime and keep to the right of Denis on plan. Denis however seems to believe in his routing software and has consistently been going faster but further right, either he will be routed by his software and we will overtake or he will have tamed the weather forecaster... either way he has been one step ahead (or 40 miles) all the way across the Caribbean

The last few days have given us horrible sea states and very very variable wind strength and direction as we sailed on a close fetch reminding us very much of the beat out of Biscay with lots of slamming.... I was trying to think how to describe the slamming... it’s enough to lift you out of your bunk... like driving at 50 across one of those massive speed humps ... then being lifted off the ground and pushed down some steps Italian job style... the whole boat vibrates with the reverberation of the mast shaking!! It’s relentless and makes moving around slow and awkward... and this is only a mild sea compared to what we have had before.... needless to say we were tempted by the Cayman Islands as a stop off!

This lead us to talking about movies on the tobacco deck yesterday... you remember' the firm' had some scenes in Cayman...oh for a night on the beach!... and how our new looks reflected as movies stars.... we concluded that Vlad the Mexican bandit looks like John Travolta from pulp fiction and donning his first ever beard Mickelob is a remarkable Russell Crow with Jack Nicholson hair, although Worswick suggests more Russell Harty!

We lost around 5 miles on Monday morning when the tack line on the zero snapped and pulled the pull pit out of the deck (as Paul explained to gibbo...piece of rope holding down a big sail pulls metal frame at front of boat off!) - so this time we have 90m2 of canvass flying like a kite around 5m from the boat - more pushing, pulling, tugging.... you know the drill. More north sail ties in service to 'sort of' hold the pull pit in place... it’s a good job we bought a load of sails from those boys or we wouldn’t have enough sail ties!

With the above in mind we have been waiting to 'pull the trigger' on a speed run to catch Denis the Riddler, finally unable to wait any longer we re-hoist the zero (unfurled because of the incident) on Tuesday morning ready for any hint of the right breeze, and it sat there waiting, waiting, waiting... as Vlads patience waned, waned, waned - until with a flurry of bad language we unfurled the damn thing anyway.... uncontrollable in the gusty conditions we persevered and as the sun set the sea became calm and we started to glide along with visions of Denis’s stern light looming ahead....

mmm well not quite.... whilst finishing our pasta and bolognaise the breeze started to drop, drop, drop - and Vlad's patience waned, waned waned.... with the inevitable about to happen Senior scoots off to bed (no sleep since last night the excuse)... the red mist descends and Vincent Vega comes to life trimming as vigorously as he swears... luckily there aren’t actually any triggers to hand!

At the same time, it would seem, all the ships in the Caribbean decided to head our way, the AIS collision alarms sounding off all the time and just for good measure the auto pilot low battery alarm joined in! Hapless Mickelob to the rescue using his best DJ tones to ask the approaching ships to alter course and give us some room, the photo of a carnival cruise liner 0.3 miles away is the closet this trip has been to a cruise!

Taking his frustration out Vincent decides to reduce weight in the 'virtually no breeze' emptying water and throwing rations and spares violently off the stern (well at least the biodegradable ones - even movie stars need their baby wipes...) finally it comes to Maximus with superior strength to stop him dismantling the winches and other deck hardware, cool as you like those deep dulcet tones tells Vincent its enough... he retired to his bunk.

So the long and short of it is the gladiators lost shed loads last night..

Many of the ships fittings and sails etc have names, from the beginning the tillers have squeaked... when I say squeak there was no escape from the metal grinding on some sort of polyester plastic.... as the tillers moved left and right they seemed to 'talk' to each other in some un recognizable jabber that stopped us from thinking straight or sleeping... squeak to wine to squeak... relentlessly... to stop the torture we tried WD40, Mclube, washing up liquid, talc, shower gel, you name it... some things you tried worked for a while and then one would start again, out of nowhere when everything seemed to be ok... we named them Jen and Kate .... We only mention this now because they are on a flight to Mexico..! We're tough Vincent Vega and Maximus... now also scared! Anyways the problem was finally resolved when we found a tin of the real McCoy in the bottom of a spares bag and we greased them properly ... a lesson perhaps!

All the best

Vincent and Maximus

Keysource' can be tracked live here: http://lasolidaireduchocolat.geovoile.com/

Americanos Latinos

Felipe Cubillos and Daniel Bravo Silva crossed the finishing line on Tuesday 17th November at 3h18, French time. The Chilean crew on Desafio Cabo de Hornos finish 6th overall (before jury validation), taking 29 days 10 hours 28 minutes 20 seconds, for a theoretical average speed of 7.09 knots over the 5 000 mile long course. This is a 100% Latin American crew, and they received honours from their Mexican cousins who had turned up in number to welcome them in to Progresso, along with the mayor of Progreso and Jacques Auxiette, President of the Pays de la Loire region.

 
Felipe Cubillos : "I’m pleased to be here. It was very important to compete and finish the race with Daniel, our first race together. We’re very happy to have taken part in this project which we believed in from the start ; we are pleased to be among the participants of this first run of the Ruta Solidaria del Chocolate. That said, we’re starving hungry. We haven’t eaten much at all over the last three days. There was a race within a race. The first fortnight was thwart with the succession of low pressure systems, then the arrival in the trade winds and a Caribbean crossing which was really pleasant. It’s a beautiful race and extremely positive for the Class 40."
 

Daniel Bravo Silva : "Happy, happy, happy. I feel like I have accomplished something. This was a super tough race . I’m still having a bit of a job realizing that I actually did it. It’s fantastic. It’s brilliant to finish in Latin America, here in Mexico. It’s like coming home ! "
 

Sir Harding and Dame Merron

Miranda Merron and Peter Harding sailed into the Yucatan harbour in the middle of the night local time (9h10 French time). They finish with a highly respectable 7th place in 29 days 16 hours and 20 minutes from Nantes-St-Nazaire and Progreso, at an average speed of 7.03 knots. The only yachtswoman in the Solidaire du Chocolat and her compatriot finish 2 days 23 hours and 45 minutes after the winners of this first edition.
 

Miranda Merron : "We’re in Progreso at last ! I’m really pleased to be here! It has been a very long but interesting race and we’re pleased with our 7th place. As with most races, the end of the race was particularly difficult. We had to change tack all the time on our way in. There were some very trying moments ; the series of lows for example. Every day, Peter would ask when the trade wind was going to come in, but it never did. We weren’t expecting to spend quite so much time upwind. We gave everything we had on this Solidaire du Chocolat. Yesterday was a great day as we were downwind all the way along the coast. One of the shore team had hidden some foie gras. We really appreciated that. What I fancy now is a good beer."

Keysource' can be tracked live here: http://lasolidaireduchocolat.geovoile.com/

At 0757UT we are at position
18 26.6N
80 54.2W
301T at 9.4kts

Eventful 24 hours... last night south of Jamaica we were planning to dip just south of Pedro bank containing a number of rocks and shoals. Waypoints set up we continued to look for the light marking the south of the dangers, a lume appeared about 30 degrees left of where we thought it should be! mmm.. double checked the position on the paper chart and description of the area, all agreed... double check ships GPS with spare... all agreed.... suddenly depth 20m... oh what to do! Passed lume to port about 2 miles east of where the rock should be and trusted the GPS, didn’t see the light mark so guess the light was out... weird going from 1000's m depth to 10-20m. As the light improved we realise we were in a mine field of pots and drove slalom for most of the morning to avoid them.

Later on we are belting along under code zero and BANG clatter wallop, brakes on.... code zero now flyng 5m to leeward... ah tack line exploded... more hauling and tugging and we have an unfurled zero on the deck... cool.... we folded it beautifully! It was about time to change to the solent anyways.

Now we are fetching and trying to find a way to catch, or at least keep in touch with Denis the riddle… he is elusive! After a night floating around the north of the island, axa attacks again... its real nip and tuck back here trading miles each POS report which we are glued too, watch system revolves around them now... the north wind is cold tonight so its jackets and beanies for us.

Going native for breakfast now with jam in tortilla wrap!

All the best,

Paul & Mike

'Keysource' can be tracked live here: http://lasolidaireduchocolat.geovoile.com/

In mid June 2009 the College responded to a request to become involved in supporting this sporting challenge. Following the meetings to prepare for the return to school in the beginning of July we selected the age group to become involved and put together a team of teachers who wanted to work on this project. Slowly but surely this project grew and it is absolutely cross-discipline (several teachers work on the same theme but in their own subject in order to reinforce the subject).

At the end of September we were told that we were working with the skippers Mike West and Paul Worswick from the boat Keysource who were racing in aid of the WWF England. We chose to work on certain themes with the whole class and organised workshops every Monday on the beach from 1pm-2pm.

The workshops were:
1. Being 13 years old in Mexico – led by the Spanish teacher
2. Cultural similarities – led by the Music teacher
3. History of Chocolate – led by the History and Geography teachers
4. Winds and Tides (the history of transatlantic navigation) – led by the Librarian.
At the end of each workshop, the pupils had to create a slide-show and presented it to the rest of the class.

Subsequent classes on these themes were:
1. The English teacher has written a diary of life on board in English and has prepared questions for the skippers – since the start of the race on 18th October.
2. The Maths teacher has introduced the topic of Mayan Numbering
3. The Music teacher has focussed on Central and Latin American music
4. The History, Geography, and Civilisation teachers have been looking at fair trade, global organisations such as the WWF, the maritime history of Nantes from 17th, 18th and 19th centuries and the industrialisation of Nantes.

At the time when the skippers were officially introduced in the chocolate village, Paul and Mike offered to take an additional child with them on the grand parade so in fact two children took part.

When we met the skippers at Saint Nazaire we received a warm and friendly welcome from Paul who responded to questions from the pupils and invited us to go aboard the boat where we ate a picnic and chocolate cakes which had been made by the pupils.

Since the start of the race we have been following the race via the link on our home page and several students have signed up for the virtual race. We regularly read the blog from the skippers.

With kind regards

Florence Chenaud

Electricians mate Michelob watched in awe at the master’s finesse and made light work of the multi tasking challenge ahead, by precisely operating the circuit breaker, and with a few short hops up the bow directing the water into the buckets... as each filled, the pipe was switched to the next bucket and the full one somewhat precariously carried back to the cockpit for disposal over the stern. Assistant Michelob doesn't really have his sea legs yet, in fact clumsy is being kind, meanwhile the good yacht Keysource managed to seek out the best breeze of the day and was happily bowling along at 15kts, albeit a little too healed for comfort during this magic of engineering.

Once the flow had ebbed, Vlad (Daniels-Worswick) produced yet more water from a dry sponge, the heat was intense and humidity through the roof, “not good for adiabatic cooling" Mickelob commented cleverly...., “rig me up the fan in my bedroom you fool” barked vlad.

On the tobacco deck the pair reflected on a good mornings work, Michelob desperately searched for something sensible to say as usual.... “good work this morning Mr Vlad... I bet you are really pleased I added those Speedo trunks to the crew kit aren't you... you look like you've been for a swim” he exclaimed with a proud tone.

“You idiot” snapped Vlad... “I’m going to bed ... you are going to helm in the mid days sun... get south with speed, this is a yacht race not a pantomime....” grinning ear to ear, the hapless Michelob grabbed two bottles of newly produced water and blackcurrant cordial and went off to drive. As prince Vlad retired to his air conditioned suite he barked... “Don’t forget to put your sun hat on red cheeks!”

Michelob could only think about how clever he was to understand adiabatic cooling and what a good job he had done installing the fan; musing that prince Vlad was being cooled by the power of the sun from the solar panels... “what a genius I am” he whispered.... as the lack of concentration resulted in a drenching from a big wave!

'Keysource' can be tracked live here: http://lasolidaireduchocolat.geovoile.com/

Highlight of the day was seeing a whale lolloping past us - we'd just completed a sail change so were both on deck to see him, he was going in the opposite direction to us and past about 10 meters off our right hand side- maybe 30-40 feet? Just awesome and humbling when you see these huge creatures in the open ocean.

Well now that we're in the Caribbean we have a race on our hands. All of us are pretty close together, at one of the morning updates we were only separated by 40 miles. By the 4pm update we had moved up a couple of places to 12th but at the 8pm we had dropped down one to 13th (only by a mile though). The way we're sailing this part of the course, I think the POS reports may be a little misleading for the next couple of days - but we're still glued to them.

Caught up on some chores today, I did some whipping on our main spinnaker halyard which had chafed through and also we discovered a leak in the sealed bulkhead at the front of the boat. That involved both Mike and I taking turns squeezing ourselves in to the smallest space imaginable and reaching into a small hole with a cut-in-half water bottle and trying to bail it out. We got most of it after a couple of hours but tomorrow we're going to try and rig up a better bailing system so that we can fully empty it. Most uncomfortable as it's been very hot today and we've both picked up lots of fiberglass which is itchy and sore!

Other than that not too much to report - ailing along nicely now, only seen a few patches of lightening this evening and generally it's less cloudy and less humid which makes it more pleasant. We’re heading a bit south of the direct route and hoping this will pay in the next couple of days - might not help our position on the overalls though. Still the boat which was behind s - Vales - has abandoned racing today - very sad for them to have come so far and have to drop out now - that's 10 abandonments out of 24 starters - been a very tough race this one.

All the best,

Paul

'Keysource' can be tracked live here: http://lasolidaireduchocolat.geovoile.com/

So after more than 4500 miles of sailing we had not seen one of our competitors for more than 3 weeks, what an amazing race this has been with the fleet spread out across the Atlantic, at times over 1000 miles apart, and today at 3pm we saw Patrice on Credit Maritime about 25 miles out from St Barts gate... suddenly it felt like a real yacht race rather than the virtual positions reports, which we are now addicted too. Gains and losses are tabulated in the daily log and I get a personal briefing from our Mexican looking co skipper at every report.

We had an extra deck hand who joined the boat yesterday, a small Chaffinch landed on the boat, had a look round, including a sit on the chart table and decided to rest up in a bucket of my washing. The compass cover made an ideal bird bath and I discovered my co skipper was a twitcher as the bird was treated royally to biscuits and melba toast! Departing this morning with no thanks and just pooping on my clothes much to Worswick’s delight!

Just after seeing Patrice, my first Atlantic crossing started to end as I proudly shouted ‘land ahoy’ on seeing Barbuda, frankly there have been days when I wondered when it would all end and we are both exhausted from the last few days sailing.... but a new race has started at St Barts and there are a few boats to chase and we are all in the same area for a change.

The so called gate at St Barts was between 'la pain du sucre' - a rock apparently made out of bread and sugar? and a virtual mark 1.5 miles south, we had to fly all our flags and dodgers etc for photos and expected excited rib drivers to be buzzing round the boat. I took great pleasure in preparing the flags and tying them on whilst Paul constantly asked me why I enjoyed it and wasn’t there something more pressing to be done on the jobs list! mmm.. he was not a fan of the gate, we had to drop the spi because the angle was too shy and then gybe to get inside the virtual mark, re-hoist and away... once we got hold of the race committee by VHF we were virtually through the gate and they explained the rib wasn't working or something, we think they were in the bar.. In any event no fanfare at St Barts and Ron (Paul) feels justified in proclaiming the whole shenanigan's as a complete waste of time and fretted for an hour! I quietly collected up the flags somewhat disappointed; anyway I made him have his photo next to our proudly hoisted WWF flag!

And we’re off with new optimism and empty batteries, so sleep on the agenda, hoping for a more settled evenings sail...  after two hours in our new waters ominous clouds started to form, and guess what, back in another lightning storm. Bring on the sail changes and welcome to the Caribbean.....

All the best,

Mike

'Keysource' can be tracked live here: http://lasolidaireduchocolat.geovoile.com/

Overnight was pretty tense, neither Mike nor I got much sleep as we were both on deck trying to work our path through the dozen or so thunderstorms on view at any one time - felt like by the last one we were finally on our game and managed to get around it ok.

Completely different conditions now - sun is shining and hot again (I was actually cold yesterday), we're making around 10 knots towards the mark and catching up on chores and sleep. There seems to be a problem with the position reports today though - the 4pm one had us only 9 miles further on than the 12pm one - we reckon to have moved more like 40 (though it seems that this is the case for all our competitors as well).

I have yet to tackle the small spinnaker repair - I've dried it all out and assessed it and it's probably a several hour job and even then it may explode as soon as we hoist it - not in good shape. I say small, it's actually 140 square meters - about the floor space of a small house!

Picture to show our salubrious conditions in which we're living - Senior's sleeping in standard accommodation at the moment, but we do have an ensuite as well - and you thought we were roughing it!!

Thanks for all the support and hopefully by the next update we'll be in the Caribbean!

'Keysource' can be tracked live here: http://lasolidaireduchocolat.geovoile.com/

Still very squally here, we've been doing lots of sail changes and trying to keep the sails in one piece. Perfect example is this morning:

We'd been sailing along early this morning with our light chute up, I'd seen some nasty looking clouds so I woke Mike up to help me change to our heavy chute. A little later it picked up even more so we changed from the heavy chute to the Gennaker. All good so far, sailing along fast making good miles to the mark. We were forecast to be in 7 knots of breeze; however we were probably in 17...

So I'm downstairs catching up on emails and looking at the weather for the next few days when all of a sudden a huge squall hits (we couldn't see it coming as it was thick rain) - I dive up on deck and help Senior ease sails and we get knocked flat - I'd guess we saw around 50 knots. So we fight to furl up the Gennaker, no dice, I hand steer and manage to get the Gennaker behind the mainsail's wind shadow and Mike grunts it in. We then reef down the main from full main to three reefs. We're now going slow as the breeze is easing almost straight away.

We put the little staysail up, still slow, we shake a reef out, still slow, so we re-rig the Gennaker which we've only taken down 15 minutes ago (and packed away nicely) and put it up, not great so we then shake out reef 2 and then reef 1. This is now an hour and a half of manic running around the deck. We're still pretty slow and not making a great course.

We take a breather, I make us a sandwich and next we're going to have to drop the staysail, drop the Gennaker and rig the heavy spinnaker again, who knows how long before its all change again.

Anyway, we're both really chuffed to be up another place overnight and we're feeling positive about the next 48 hours or so to the gate at St Barts - we'll see if our northerly strategy pays off or not.

Attached a couple of pictures Senior insisted I send in of how we were dressed to battle the storm, you can see that I wasn't really that prepared....

All the best,

Paul

'Keysource' can be tracked live here: http://lasolidaireduchocolat.geovoile.com/

'Keysource' can be tracked live here: http://lasolidaireduchocolat.geovoile.com/

Hand steering almost all the time in this stuff ... miss the wind instruments.... pilot on wind would be golden in this stuff.... can be very frustrating!

Never the less we are pleased with progress in the last 24 hours  

All the best

Mike & Paul

'Keysource' can be tracked live here: http://lasolidaireduchocolat.geovoile.com/

Luckily it has been a quiet evening, yachting making good progress with shifty breeze that has kept us moving through to the morning.

The clouds have become our Friends and we march in file with then albeit cautiously.

All the best

Paul

'Keysource' can be tracked live here: http://lasolidaireduchocolat.geovoile.com/

More conservative sail plan this evening to get some proper rest in, the last couple of days have been quite full on and we have made some gains.

The boat is in pretty good shape and looking after us, so all ok for us

Pauls hand seems to be improving slowly but every time a new dressing gets applied it seems to rain!

Daily Report

All is well on board, the last 36 hours until dusk yesterday had been hard steering under Spi. Quite testing conditions especially at night with the squalls.

We managed ok until just after it went dark last night... then  we were consumed by the mother of all clouds complete with a lightning  show, it is very weird to hear the rain approaching slowly without a
drop on you in the pitch black, then the monster unleashed its power in all its glory. Surfing away at over 20kts mealy encouraged her to blow stronger. We must have enraged the beast when the deck light went on to try and see the spi, our efforts to control the boat were futile and the battle was lost.... she pins us to the floor shaking us violently to ensure the lesson is learnt, as if looking round for the next victim the brief respite allowed us to snuff the spi if somewhat unceremoniously, the spi told us in no uncertain terms this was not acceptable and more prudence on our part would be required moving forward.

The spi is now in the bow calming down and will not be flying again until sun up, later on a similar squall attacked, perhaps a relation but the code zero took none of it and accelerated with glee at the extra vent, we however dressed for dinner and enjoyed pasta and meatballs!!

No more battles tonight some much needed rest for the two rookies !

'Keysource' can be tracked live here: http://lasolidaireduchocolat.geovoile.com/

I hadn't realised quite what a pasting our winch for the spinnaker had taken when we were smoking along over the previous weekend, we'd melted through one sheet when both Mike and I had registered top speeds just over 26 knots! Basically we'd been polishing the winch so the friction in it was reduced.

With one hand on the tiller I went to ease the kite sheet for a gust and it completely smashed through my right hand - a quick scream for Mike to come on deck to sort the spinnaker out while I pulled some pretty grim faces! Straight into cold water and Mike routed around in our med kit for the burn dressing. Quick call to Dr Spike back home to check we were doing everything right and now I'm nicely strapped up on my right hand. Felt pretty shady for the rest of the day but the drugs we have in our med kit are pretty good which helped.

Hard day for Mike as it meant him taking over the lion's share of running the boat while I moaned and groaned and got a lot of sleep.

Feeling lots better today, we went back into conservation mode after the accident but at lunchtime we put up the big kite again and it feels like we're making good progress to the gate at St Barts.

Bad new for the Finns today on Tieto, they were doing really well in 7th place but have had to retire with keel problems - apparently it's rattling around on its fittings so they've dropped sails and are motoring to St Barts. We both hope they stay safe for the 650 miles they have to go.

Race wise we've lost a few of the miles we gained over the weekend but not too bad, we're moving along well now and feeling great on board.

Mike's predicting that we'll get to Mexico the weekend of the 21/22st as apparently that's when the party is! Same old Senior.

Need to dive back on deck now, bowling along nicely but the breeze is still very variable. Hoping to catch a flying fish and chuck it on a sleeping Mike - he seems to have a fish phobia which I didn't know about so that should be good for hours of my amusement!!

Paul.

'Keysource' can be tracked live here: http://lasolidaireduchocolat.geovoile.com/

Anything can happen at sea. In view of the conditions off the Caribbean islands at the moment (15 knot easterly wind), it is difficult to imagine any major change in the fleet as Initiatives-Novedia maintains its lead over Giovanni Soldini and Pietro d’Ali (Telecom Italia), Bernard Stamm and Bruno Jourdren (Cheminées Poujoulat) and Damien Seguin and Armel Tripon (Cargill-MTTM). Another 210 miles clocked up in 24 hours for the leaders among the fastest in the fleet thereby further increasing their lead by about 10 miles compared to yesterday. As the wind is going to decrease as the Class 40s enter the Caribbean Sea, the leaders cannot allow themselves to make a pitstop in Saint Bart’s. A slight calm and all the efforts of the last two weeks to make a breakaway will be reduced to nothing. When out in the lead, there is no letting up.

Smoothing seas

One thousand miles downfield, Patrice Carpentier and Victor Maldonado (Crédit Maritime) seem to have got things right since their Portuguese pitstop. The northern course has enabled them to distance Yves Ecarlat and Lionel Regnier (Vale Inco-Nouvelle Calédonie) who headed off further south, and have sneaked in a twenty mile gain every day. At this rate, they may well end up closing in on British boat Mike West and Paul Worswick (Keysource) by Thursday evening. A nice bit of strategy. Precisely what they need to negotiate the end of this Atlantic stretch as the trade winds are showing signs of lightening up with a few rain-bearing cumulonimbus even appearing, with alternating gusts and calms. This is fine for charging the body’s batteries and being able to eat normally. But there are still 2 000 miles to go for the first boats and more than 3000 for the tail enders. 

In any event, the fight for second place is on. The Italians and Stamm-Jourdren are sailing in sight of one another, with Seguin-Tripon not far behind. The two British boats Wright-Brennan (Palanad 2) and Harding-Merron (40 Degrees) are a little further south of the Finnish team Romppanen-Öhman (Tieto Passion) who appear to have better wind. Bit of a battle going on also in the north between Lazat-Nouel (Plan, les enfants changeront le monde) and Card-Murphy (Orbis) against the southerners Nigon-Jouany (Axa Atout Cœur pour Aides) and Consorte-Aubry (Adriatech), now on the same heading. The Caribbean landfall is not going to be that easy.

Quote/unquote

Paul Worswick (co-skipper Keysource): “We finally got the kite down after spending a few hours on the foredeck yesterday evening. We just used a lot of grunt and started swinging on bits of the sail to try and pull it down and lots of untangling as the sniffing line and the snuffer was caught up in it. It was just an absolute mess. It’s such a relief to have it down. I need to go up the rig and have a look at the forestay, but there’s still a lot of sea on at the moment and it’s a bit lumpy. We’ve got about 15 knots at the moment, but it’s shifty and there’s still the odd wave that picks you up and throws you down. It should calm down by this afternoon and I’ve really got to go and have a look at the forestay as when it is wound that tight, you don’t really know if it has been turning. We’ve got the babystay rigged anyway to make sure the rig is OK with the kite and the main up. There’s nothing obvious we can see on the fittings, but I need to nip up the rig and have a look. The sail is probably reparable, but it was dark by the time we got it down last night, so we stuffed it in the bag and we’ll have a look at it when it gets light. We’re unlikely to need it as it’s our heavy-air sail. We’re waiting for a shift to the west, but I don’t see much to be gained by going south. The other boys are still going south, but maybe they’re just fed up with being in the north! It looks as though we will be gybing all the way down to St. Barts.”

'Keysource' can be tracked live here: http://lasolidaireduchocolat.geovoile.com/

It was too dark to access the forestay but it seems very loose and its possible the twisting could have damaged this, we have the baby stay up as a precaution and wont be able to use the jib until we are confident its ok.... for now we have a relatively conservative sail plan for the time being and we can get back underway with a little more pace now...

We reflected on the conditions in which the wrap occurred and perhaps there was more breeze than we guessed, difficult with no instruments, were we pushing a little too hard...? (not in either of our characters!).. but maybe. We already checked the latest report and thankfully we haven’t lost too much to the fleet so far, but it’s still such a long way to go so preservation is the key.

In other news we have sailed 3000 miles today and actually only 2000 miles towards the finish! This was the price we gambled with when we decided to take the southern route; we have another 3000 miles to go to the finish! So not even half way through the race from a distance point of view after 17 days at sea...

We rewarded ourselves with a late dinner of pasta and chilli which was welcomed, both of us completely exhausted with muscles burning, we will sleep in short shifts to catch up on some sleep and rest and probably face a few sail changes later on Tuesday night...

So for now a relieved Snr & Ron

'Keysource' can be tracked live here: http://lasolidaireduchocolat.geovoile.com/

Two weeks into the race and men and machines are showing signs of fatigue. Almost all of the Class 40s have had technical problems of one sort or another. Right now, the crews have to try and think three days ahead to work out how best to approach the passage of Saint Bart’s and even decide whether making a pitstop is necessary. 

Race rules force a minimum three hour stop if a boat decides to put in to port for technical reasons. The Solidaire du Chocolat rule is not really a penalty if the reason for the pitstop requires major attention.  It leaves the time for a brief rest, time to take on fuel and fresh food, and perhaps even time to have a quick drink under the sun. As for the weather, that will depend very much on the eastern wave which is ahead of the fleet and kicking up a great cloudy mass. Grey skies, and nothing dry on board. The crews have been stewing in humid conditions for a fortnight.

Caribbean reshuffle

Three days to wait before sighting land, for the race leaders that is, four more for the tail enders.  The leaders are the ones to have the fewest technical problems. Tanguy de Lamotte and Adrien Hardy (Initiatives-Novedia) are less than 900 miles of Saint Bart’s and have an 80 miles lead over their closest rivals, Giovanni Soldini and Pietro d’Ali (Telecom Italia) who have other problems this afternoon than their broken forestay. The Italians were to be overtaken by Bruno Jourdren and Bernard Stamm (Cheminées Poujoulat) as they were six knots slower and had called to a halt for several hours head to wind to carry out repairs. Both crews are now contemplating putting into the Caribbean. 

And they might not be alone. Damien Seguin and Armel Tripon (Cargill-MTTM) no longer have an alternator so they have to keep electricity consumption down to a minimum. Third place may well be up for grabs as last weekend they reset their track onto the same as that of the leader which may end up paying off in the shifting trades. Brits Tim Wright and Paul Worswick (Keysource) have problems too. They’ve rolled their foresail round the stay and don’t know how to remove it. Across the fleet, there are torn spinnakers for Erik Nigon and Marc Jouany (Axa Atout Cœur pour Aides), Yves Ecarlat and Lionel Regnier (Vale Inco-Nouvelle Calédonie).

In fine shape

The only good note ringing out in this cacophony of fatigue and problems is the Chileans Felipe Cubillos and Daniel Bravo Silva (Desafio Cabo de Hornos) who are in great shape, among the fastest of the fleet along with the Finnish  Jouni Romppanen and Sam Öhman (Tieto Passion) who are battling it out for 7th. The Atlantic is not the same for everyone, all of whom are none the less in high pressure systems and under the tropics. Little separates the boats in terms of heading – straight towards the Caribbean. The lateral differences will be reduced in the next couple of days and the hierarchy will be established before reaching Saint Bart’s.

Mike West - UK (Keysource): 'Things were going really well until we took out our A4 headsail and it rolled round the stay. Whatever we try, it makes no difference. We’re sailing with the main and staysail as we try and work out what we can do to sort things out. Seas state is rough and we have tried to repair several times but it’s not possible. This is a tough race. The sea is really horrible. This is not what we expected at all. 30 knots and cross seas. We’re going to have to speed up to negotiate that'. 

'Keysource' can be tracked live here: http://lasolidaireduchocolat.geovoile.com/

Overnight the sea was still horrible and there was a lot of wind - we haven't lost as many miles as we thought we might which is good. This morning the breeze has gradually been easing - hopefully the sea will follow suit and I can get back up the rig this afternoon to get this chute down.

Reading the reports from the fleet it seems like everyone else is having plenty of breakages - it looks like a few boats may stop in St Barts when we get to the Caribbean to make repairs - hopefully we won’t have to and we can start pulling back some more miles.

A picture of Mike making us dinner is below - pictured with our lucky frogs which Emmanuel made for us - they need to start doing their magic soon!

Hopefully the next blog will have us flying along at pace and hunting down the boys in front!

Paul

'Keysource' can be tracked live here: http://lasolidaireduchocolat.geovoile.com/

What a frustrating experience going around the Canaries was, I really missed everything about home, Jen and the pups! Family and friends, the guys at work and good old Blighty... We complain about home but I always love coming back to the UK; the over population and queuing must do it for me...

When we finally got breeze on Friday it was like another phase, or like the race had just started as the trade winds were working nicely and many people start their first Atlantic crossing from here so it was quite apt in a way.

The breeze built steady and Saturday and Sunday have been a full on racing routine... it seems every race we do, there is a period of intense concentration because of a problem, conditions or navigation, in this case it was the conditions, the limited instruments and autopilot. The drill is basically 1 to 2 hours watch, so drive and trim, chores, sleep... drive and trim, chores sleep and so on - you get the idea. This is our way to make the boat go fast! And we have been on this schedule more or less since Friday. Because the gusts were so intense, we decided to drive using the autopilot adjusting course with one hand and trim the spi with the other - see picture.

Ray (our standby or redundant auto pilot, which has been in use since Day 2!) is controlled by a small panel I am operating with my left hand, anyway our right hands are red raw... easy tiger... from the spi sheet! We got some great speeds and posted some of the fastest times of the fleet this weekend. The acceleration of the gust is incredible, our top speed this weekend was 26kt plus which seems much faster than my motor at full tilt I can tell you, the gusts were prolonged so the spray at that speed was very Volvo 70!!  Anyway, normally you hit the back of a wave at full tilt, create a massive water explosion, slide your mate out of his bunk and it all starts over again... lots of fun... nice shot of us coming down one of the smaller waves (below).

We clawed back a couple of places and we’re glued to the position reports every 4 hours to see if we were making progress and we were..... but you can tell there is a but! This morning towards the end of my watch I got thrown off the top of a massive wave, I managed to bear away but at the bottom, the wave spun me back the other way which momentarily allowed the spi to get the wrong side and with what started as one little wrap, we now have 140m2 of spinnaker wrapped tightly around the forestay. Oh hum, all morning has been spent trying conventional and not so conventional methods to get it down but to no avail. We have tried going up the rig but it is far too windy and the sea state is horrendous so it will have to stay there until the weather improves and we can go up the rig to (probably) cut it down...and hope there is no real damage to the forestay.

This really limits our sail options until this problem is fixed... no solent, and can’t risk the remaining flapping cloth getting wrapped in another downwind sail so in the meantime we have our little stay sail up... at least we are heading in the right direction, albeit slowly.

So a time for reflection and a shower!

All the best,

Mike

'Keysource' can be tracked live here: http://lasolidaireduchocolat.geovoile.com/

The Collège chose a Quatrième classe with 21 pupils (equivalent to Year Eight in Britain - pupils aged 13 - 14) with whom to work on this project and by the end of the project (in December), each group of pupils is expected to produce a slideshow of images linked to what they have learnt and to the race itself.

On 15th October, two of the children in the class won a competition to sail from Nantes to St Nazaire with Mike and Paul.  

'Keysource' can be tracked live here: http://lasolidaireduchocolat.geovoile.com/

More of the same

On Sunday 1st November, the near perfect conditions after twelve days of head winds are almost certain to continue over to the Caribbean. The only element which might alter that is the gradual wind shift south-east to east and the strengthening trades. .It should influence the hierarchy but technically speaking, Sunday’s leaders should mark a slight advantage over the next couple of days. Thereafter, the situation should become a little more complex, as the trades should drop off a little on the approach to the Caribbean. If they turn south-east, that will favour the northerners, and if they turn north-east, that is good news for the southerners. Sailing fast is not enough. You have to go and be in the right place at the right time and the weather reports are not necessarily as clear as they might seem from terra firma. 

'Keysource' can be tracked live here: http://lasolidaireduchocolat.geovoile.com/

While we were drifting around I went up the rig to try and fix the Tricolour at the top of the mast and also have a look at the wind instruments up there. I managed to rewire the Tricolor which means that at night we can see which direction the winds coming from (kind of useful!!)But I failed with the wind instruments - the bracket holding them is all corroded and broken anyway so think that we'll have to continue without.

 
Whilst up the rig I got a bit of a shock - there was a 3 inch locust sat at the top of the mainsail - not too sure if they sting but I was pretty keen to come down when I saw him - tried to get a picture but don't think he looks anywhere near as big as close up.....

We headed down the African coast and have now picked up much better pressure and we're finally pointing at Mexico now - as I write this we're smoking along going up to 13 knots - such a relief to actually be making progress. at the 1200 update yesterday (Thursday – 29/10) we were 1042 miles behind Soldini - that's something like 100 miles a day we've lost out to him - 8 hours later it was 1009 - if we could keep those gains up it would only take us 10 days to draw level with him (though I think this is a hugely unlikely!)

Still the boys up north are getting another hammering - hats off to them for continuing - not too sure what kind of shape we'd be in if we'd gone that way...

Ran the engine for the first time in a couple of days to make some water and discovered that our main charging alternator wasn't working. Cue Mike getting his clamp meter and multimeter out to try and fix it. He didn't manage to but we have the back-up alternator which charges the starter battery, lower rated but it should do us to get to Mexico - the fuel cell and solar panels are doing a good job anyway. Anyway it gave Mike opportunity to go off on another of his speeches about redundancy and n+1 etc....

The moment of yesterday had to be a pod of maybe 50 dolphins racing over to say hello - as they approached they were all jumping 3 or 4 foot in the air - such an awesome sight - I never tire of seeing dolphins they lift even the blackest mood.

Right - I should get back on deck as we're honing along and Mike is absolutely sparko in bed - thanks to everyone for all the support - we're trying to do a little better - who knows in a couple of days we might not be in last place!

Paul.

'Keysource' can be tracked live here: http://lasolidaireduchocolat.geovoile.com/

So Matt asked about the music and we have been a bit light on tunes the last few days, Monday night was everything off because it was so foggy, we had a real scare when the fuel cell cycled turned on and it sounded just like a big ships engine really close!

We have rigged up our emergency VHF antenna now (see picture) so we get much better AIS signal (this kit tells us what ships are around and how close they will come to us, so pretty important safety kit). If they are going to be less than one mile at the closest point we usually call them up on the VHF to make sure they have seen us on radar...., Ron (Paul) reckons I sound like a DJ when I'm on the radio so we are Radio Kerlaria now...

The fuel cell is a magic piece of kit and definitely a big tick, the first 5l container methanol has run the system for over 100 hours charging the batteries at 5A virtually continuously.... The solar panels however, have caused some unrest between the skippers as I insist on separately coiling each cable when we put them away, it took Ron (Paul) 30 minutes to uncoil my neat work this morning... he was deliberately banging around whilst putting them on deck whilst I was off watch hoping to wake me... to no avail... now we rush to be the one to put them away... neatly coiled or roughly bunched that is the question?

When its not foggy or cloudy its roasting down here, feels like we have been at sea long enough to get to the Caribbean not the Canaries! We had a couple of hours of sailing with good breeze (well 10-12 kts) yesterday afternoon, it was a welcome relief, Ron (Paul) had the Best of Lenny Kravitz on, see picture below of co skipper in reflective mood. Perhaps my patience has improved and my mood mellowed in the recent years but I was quite happy to hit myself over the head with a winch handle last night, perhaps one of the most tiring and trying sailing I’ve done, still we’re not in yet another storm like the boys up north...Soldini is finally back in lead as expected!

So today we have had 4 fishing boats doing a pincer maneuver on us whilst we floated about putting each sail up in turn to try and get somewhere and we thought we saw some whales, well Ron (Paul) was bored and looking around with the bins as well!

A couple of margaritas in Lanzarote would go down pretty well right now, instead we have had a Kerlaria club sandwich for lunch and back on to Dire Straits with Love Over Gold for this afternoon.... Looks like the breeze maybe filling in now, we are desperate to get past the Canaries and chase the other two guys ahead and try to get  west in towards St Barts, most of the northern fleet are starting to head south now so we must get a wiggle on or Progresso will be closed when we get there.

Colds improving, patience waning, wind coming, cables to be coiled.

All the best,

Mike and Paul

'Keysource' can be tracked live here: http://lasolidaireduchocolat.geovoile.com/

As the front passed, Soldini and D’Ali in the west were the first boat to tack back south-west and in the 0800 GMT position, Telecom Italia has dramatically closed down the lead held by Initiatives-Novedia and holds 2nd place, under two miles behind Tanguy de Lamotte and Adrien Hardy and averaging nine knots. Opting for the west has proved wise for Bruno Jourdren and Bernard Stamm who have moved up the 3rd having left the cold front and trail Initiatives-Novedia by 26 miles at 0800 GMT.

Keeping south of the strongest breeze in the cold front, Jouni Romppanen and Sam Öhman on Tieto have held 5th place and are currently 71 miles behind Cargill-MTTM of Damien Seguin and Armel Tripon in 4th place. “Late evening and we had today easy-going sailing with full main  and Solent,” explained the Finnish skipper last night. “It was time to do some servicing on the boat and also to ourselves. With the boat there was not too much to do, more like checks,” says Romppanen. “We found one tiny hole in the Solent and Sam fixed that.” The retirement yesterday of Pole Santé Elior-Mistral Loisirs – one of the top-ranked boats in the fleet – was a reminder of how tough the race has become. “It was sad to read that Bouchard and Krauss were not able to continue the race,” he adds. “I hope Mother Nature will ease-off a little bit so at least the rest of the fleet will arrive in Mexico.”

The more westerly boats in contact with the front produced the highest speed averages with Felipe Cubillos and Daniel Bravo Silva on Desafio Cabo de Hornos currently in 8th producing the highest speed at 8.2 knots after midnight. “We’ve fixed the tack line on the Solent,” confirmed the Chilean skipper late last night. “But during the repair, a large wave hit the boat and I fell, damaging my ankle,” reports Cubillos. “I’ve been in contact with medics in Chile and it’s all OK, apart from the fact that the boat now has a lame skipper limping around which, I think, adds a certain amount of swashbuckling glamour to the scene!” Despite the injury, both the yachtsmen were ready for the cold front. “We have dried out our clothes and sleeping bags and things are pretty close to paradise right now. This has been a really hard race from the very start and our thoughts are with the teams that aren’t going to reach Yucatan,” continues Cubillos. “For now, Daniel and I have eaten cooked food, the sun is setting and we have to get on and catch our rivals.”

East of the fleet’s main body, the two Class40s isolated due to pit-stops in Spain and Portugal have split with Patrice Carpentier and Victor Maldonado on Crédit Maritime in 13th place taking a more northerly route towards the Azores, while Yves Eclaret and Lionel Regnier are sailing a more south-westerly course in 15th place on Vale Inco Nouvelle Calédonie. Meanwhile, the trio of boats taking the southern route are still in search of the non-existent breeze, with David Consorte and Aubry Arnaud leading on Adriatech and Erik Nigon and Marc Jouany on Axa Atout Coeur Pour Aides sailing in light following breeze along the African Continental shelf, 90 miles off the coast of Morocco.

While these two boats are south of the Canary Islands, the British duo of Mike West and Paul Worswick on Keysource are currently sailing between the islands and the African coast. “All well on board, just struggling to get past the Canaries and into this elusive, decent breeze which we've been promised once we get through!” commented Worswick this morning. “Great lightening storm on Lanzarote last night - awaiting sun-up to have our first glance of the islands,” he reports. “Really sorry to hear about Mistral Loisirs yesterday - they were proving to be great competitors - our thoughts and feelings are with both of them,” adds Worswick, echoing the sentiment felt on all 16 boats still competing in La Solidaire du Chocolat.

'Keysource' can be tracked live here: http://lasolidaireduchocolat.geovoile.com/

Mike

Paul

Sunset

'Keysource' can be tracked live here: http://lasolidaireduchocolat.geovoile.com/

Starting from St. Nazaire in the northern quarter of the Bay of Biscay and running across the North Atlantic and through the Caribbean to Progresso, Mexico, on the northern limit of the Yucatán Peninsular, the race became a battle for survival within 24 hours of the start on Sunday 18th October for all the 24 entries: teams that include Felipe Cubillos and Desafio Cabo de Hornos who took second place in the 2008-09 Portimão Global Ocean Race and two boats already entered in the Global Ocean Race 2011-12; Vendée Globe and Whitbread-Round-the-World Race veteran, Patrice Carpentier on Crédit Maritime and the Class40 President, Jacques Fournier sailing Groupe Picoty with the Class40 Treasurer, Jean-Edouard Criquioche.

After a deceptively benign start off St. Nazaire in a very light north-easterly breeze, the second night at sea was brutal with a fast-moving cold front sweeping through the fleet delivering gusts of 50 knots and building huge seas. As the teams went into survival mode, some casualties were inevitable during the Biscay maelstrom. Pushing hard in the top half of the fleet and separated by a handful of miles, Entreprendre En Coopératives   of Benoît Parnaudeau and Stanislas Maslard and Les Conquérants de Normandie-Caen la Mer of Marc Lepesqueux and Jean-Charles Monnet retired almost simultaneously. Parneaudeau and Maslard pulling out of the race due to delamination forward of the mast sustained when their three year-old Nacira Class40 flew off a wave and slammed into a trough, while Lepesquex and Monnet suffered electrical failure and muscle injury during the storm.

As the front passed, leaving steep and confused seas in its path, the leading trio of yachts began to separate from the bulk of the fleet with the race leaders, Bruno Jourdren and Bernard Stamm on Cheminées Poujoulat heading almost due west and chased hard by Thierry Bouchard and Oliver Krauss on Pole Sante Elior-Mistral Loisirs in second place and Initiatives-Novedia of Tanguy de Lamotte and Adrien Hardy in third with just a handful of miles separating the three boats. Meanwhile, the formidable Italian team of Giovanni Soldini and Pietro d’Ali on Telecom Italia split from the fleet heading south-west, directly for Cape Finisterre.

In the aftermath of the gale, more damage was revealed with Yvan Noblet and Damien Guillou on Appart City forced to retire with the mainsail torn below the second reef and rudder problems. Soon afterwards, the American duo of MacKenzie Davis and Brian Harris on Amhas informed the race office that they were retiring with electrical and pilot problems and the British team of Richard Tolkien and Neal Brewer on Orca pulled out of the race with severe structural problems around the foot of the mast.

Early on the morning of the third day at sea, the front pack of the fleet rounded Cape Finisterre with Jourdren and Stamm holding first place furthest offshore on Cheminées Poujoulat still chased hard by Pole Sante Elior-Mistral Loisirs and Initiatives-Novedia with the trio spread by just 22 miles. Before setting off across the Atlantic, two boats opted to make pit stops for vital repairs: Vale Inco Nouvelle Calédonie of Yves Eclaret and Lionel Regnier pulled into La Coruña on the Spanish coast before dawn on Wednesday for sail repairs and Patrice Carpentier sailing with a Mexican co-skipper, Victor Maldonado, took Crédit Maritime into the small fishing port of Camarinas, just north of Cape Finisterre, to make vital autopilot repairs.

With the first storm denying the double-handed teams any opportunity to slip into an offshore rhythm, a second storm promised headwinds as the fleet sailed south along the coast of Spain and Portugal. A few hours before the heavy weather arrived, a sixth boat, PHR of Pascal Doin and Laurent Mermod, retired with autopilot problems and headed north-east to Quiberon.

On the fourth night, the second, north-westerly storm ripped through the fleet, but the toughened teams survived intact despite the horrific conditions. As daylight broke on Thursday, the Solidaire du Chocolat fleet were heading south, waiting for the first boat to tack west towards the Azores and the first turning mark in the course: the island of Flores. In the mid-afternoon, the three lead boats - Cheminées Poujoulat, Pole Sante Elior-Mistral Loisirs and Initiatives-Novedia – made the break westwards and by midnight the majority of the fleet had followed, leaving a handful of boats to continue south.

Friday night delivered a third storm for the group heading west with winds reaching 32 knots while the five Class40s taking the southern option were stalled by light headwinds. Following the storm, the first leadership change in the race was at 0800 GMT as Tanguy de Lamotte and Adrien Hardy on Initiatives-Novedia heading the southern pack of westward boats overhauled Bruno Jourdren and Bernard Stamm on Cheminées Poujoulat and Thierry Bouchard and Oliver Krauss on Pole Sante Elior-Mistral Loisirs as Jourdren and Bouchard’s Class40s stalled in light airs and the southern pack piled on towards the Azores at eight knots.

On Sunday morning, there was one clear focus for the fleet heading towards the Azores: a deep Low Pressure system centred 500 miles north-west of the islands. Currently just 15 miles east of Santa Maria – the most southerly island in the group – at 0800 GMT this morning, Tanguy de Lamotte and Adrien Hard on Initiatives-Novedia and the more southern group should miss the brunt of the headwinds while Thierry Bouchard and Oliver Krauss in second place on Pole Sante Elior-Mistral Loisirs and the pack further north will have stronger headwinds as they approach the archipelago. Furthest north in the fleet, Stephen Card and Shaun Murphy in ninth place on ORBIS have to drop almost 400 miles south-west to reach the mandatory waypoint of Flores in the Azores and will encounter the strongest, upwind breeze in the fleet.

Quotes from the boats:

Miranda Merron (co-skipper 40 Degrees): “Naturally, we are yet again gently slamming into waves, upwind to the next low. The Musto drysuit remains in use for the foreseeable future. It's time to read the tea leaves, and make offerings to the gods regarding the lack of Trade Winds to the south.”

Felipe Cubillos (skipper Desafio Cabo de Hornos): “My head injury? My head is still crazy after all these years! Nothing serious. I’m just wondering what we are doing here. I’m dreaming of being in a house, with a TV, with my dog, living by internet and watching these crazy guys sailing!”

Yves Ecarlat (skipper Vale Inco Nouvelle Calédonie): “During the pre-race medical briefing, the doctor advised us that prehistoric man survived on 1,600 calories/day. This deprivation enabled him to roam the ancient plains in a constant state of alertness and avoid any encounters with sabre-toothed tigers or other ravenous wild beasts. Well, I conclude that our ancestors were deranged! Last night I ate a tartiflette (thank you SuperU!) and this morning I can report that there wasn’t a drooling carnivore prowling around the cabin. I tell you this in the name of advancing science…”

Erik Nigon (skipper Axa Atout Coeur Pour Aides):“Let the professionals go north while we take the southern route.”

Tim Wright (skipper Sail4Cancer): “We’re going to try and get some kip as there’s some more weather coming ahead. We’re still stonking through about 20-25 knots at the moment, up to 30 in the squalls. You really have to wonder what you’ve done wrong!”

Denis Lazat (skipper Plan): “The boat’s been slamming about for three days now and it rained all day today: tropical rain in terms of intensity, but Nordic rain for its temperature! I’d signed-up for downwind sailing south, not upwind boat-breaking seas in the cold! Message for Jacques Fournier our class President: I want my Class40 subs back!”

Bernard Stamm (co-skipper Cheminées Poujoulat): “So, the third storm has passed through with the unstable breeze topping out at 32 knots and big seas.  We now have a short break with less wind before the next big blow. I hope this is the last one as I think we have all earned a change in the weather.”

Morning all

We’re on the road to Marrakech, great days sailing yesterday, with dolphins and sea turtles but few ships. The only one we did see arrived out of nowhere and only appeared on the AIS after we saw it, so more cabling problems up the mast I guess. Never mind the active echo is actually a great bit of kit and we’re pretty happy it was insisted on!

We had our new solar panels working all day yesterday which supplemented with the fuel cell is a great combination and reduces the need for engine charging considerably.

We had better breeze than the grbs showed this evening, which is great, we need to be faster at the moment and hope this keeps up, it will be good to see our DTF start to come down after the canaries

The electronics issues continue to be a pain much like everyone else, the B&G stuff is definitely not robust enough for this sort of trip, we have been without all instruments on occasion and relied entirely on the back up Raymarine compass and Windex (which we are still very lucky to have I know) which was fine until the tri-color stopped, still we have the trusty old double AA's in our torches.

We both have a cold but it’s not too bad and finally we conceded our mannish behavior and had some Beechams!

These bacon butties are still great even in the warmer climes so looking forward to breakfast.

Trust all is well with the guys battling it out further north, it is fascinating to watch the race unfold up there, and we are in awe... but also warm.

All the best

Mike & Paul

'Keysource' can be tracked live here: http://lasolidaireduchocolat.geovoile.com/

Well - we've been racing for one week now, it's been a week of highs and lows and some very difficult lessons. 

Where are we? Well, we're just coming up on the North African coast on Morocco’s coastline heading due south. The weather is lovely and sunny, and we have breeze coming to us from the North which means that we're downwind sailing.

As far as the race is concerned we are in 15th place - there have been 7 retirements and a further 2 boats had to stop in port to make repairs from the gales which we've been sailing through. The majority of the fleet has headed west on a much more direct route through continual storms and cold weather, we have headed on a longer southerly course through sunshine and very warm weather (which we're very happy with!)

At the end of the week, the boats in the north are over 500 miles nearer to Mexico than we are - our strategy is that the further south you are, the better the winds are and we should be able to make up the miles to Mexico - we'll know in the next week or so whether our strategy has paid off or whether we are fated for a low finish position.

On board life is sweet now that we are out of the gales and horrible seas. The dry suits have been packed away, the solar panels are out and the spinnaker is set which will probably stay up for days now if not weeks. We're both much better rested and fed and the only ailments on board are a mild cough each.

There are only two problems on board - one, I've lost the fairy liquid, I had it yesterday when I was doing some cleaning and cannot remember where it is, both Mike and I have had a good search but to no avail. The second, more serious problem, is the boat's instruments - they've been broken since the first night and try as Mike might, he cannot get them working. It means we don't know what the wind strength is and where it's coming from, obviously we have a fairly good idea but Keysource is a pretty technical boat and understanding this information is key - still it's not a show stopper and won't prevent us from getting to Progresso.

Scenery wise we've only seen dolphins a couple of times, I saw a sea turtle yesterday, he was floating on the surface enjoying the sunshine but dived down as we passed him by. The sky at night is amazing; last night alone I saw 4 shooting stars - awesome.

That's it from me for now - I'm on watch while Mike catches up on his sleep, we are bowling along at around 8 knots and all is good in the world.

Paul

'Keysource' can be tracked live here: http://lasolidaireduchocolat.geovoile.com/

So we decided to get our solar panels out for the first time and see how they worked, and they did exactly what was promised which is more than we can say for the boat electronics!!

With the solar panels and fuel cell working together we went all day without running the engine to charge the batteries which is fantastic, we are working hard to reduce the power consumption on the boat and in economy mode we could nearly survive without the engine... more on that later I'm sure.

It was a tough day because we had to navigate the very light winds in the high pressure off South West Portugal in order to continue our southward route, most of the day was spent at crawling pace catching the occasional zephyr until we slowly cleared the high. We stopped for morning coffee with shortbread from Joffy's hamper... and our support act was Dire Straits Brothers in Arms.

Early evening and we had done it and set the big spinnaker to head south to the Canaries. Ron (Paul) did an awesome job on the navigation and setting the boat up for the next leg south.

Chef Michael prepared a celebratory dinner of meatballs and couscous with a slice all swilled down with water made by our very own water maker! Tonight looks like shorts on watch... this is what we came for... shooting stars again.

Spare a thought for the guys up north, yet another punishing front for most of them and they will not be wearing shorts tonight that’s for sure!

All the best,

Mike

'Keysource' can be tracked live here: http://lasolidaireduchocolat.geovoile.com/

As we headed south it seemed a different world, sun shining, shades on and we changed our clothes for the first time since Sunday, the boat smelt of pretty raw! Still we played the Commitments full blast and sung like teenagers.

And food, we hadn’t really eaten in days, so some hot food was on the agenda, for one of our main meals we have ready meal from "look what we found", have you seen this stuff its magic, the food frenzy has included meatballs and pasta, sausage casserole (tonight), chilli and rice and some sort of lentil dish Ron (Paul) insisted on yesterday lunchtime..... The best part is our morning bacon butty, Ron won’t sail with me unless we have one every morning!

So refreshed we head south and started getting the boat back in shape, actually the boat cope brilliantly with the heavy conditions apart from the electrical and electronics issues.. Ironic isn’t it... The highs and lows.

Our southerly routing looked pretty good on Wednesday, its impossible to tell how this will pan out in the long run but we will have to sail 100's of extra miles West when we get to the trades compared to the boats taking a more direct northerly route, however they still have to get south at some point and that can be more tricky the further west you get. Lets face it, the guys racing up north at the moment are predominantly pro's with legends like Stamm and Soldini as well as Tanguay and others... it is fascinating to watch these guys slog it out. For us we had a few boats ahead to chase and perhaps a few coming south to keep us on out toes.

We would have loved to be in the mix with the guys and Nicko and Tim on Paland and Miranda and Peter on 40 Degrees (fellow Brits on a brand new boat they have barely sailed) are really hanging on to the leaders... fantastic stuff not to mention the other Brits Shaun (spud) and Stephen way up north... they love the breezy stuff.. We used to race against spud on the J105 and he won a lot of offshore stuff.

However it didn’t take long for the good sprits to be dampened, we get the weather forecast (grib files) and run the routing software several time a day to help determine the quickest route and the update Thursday evening was a disaster... we planned to sail past gib to the African coast and head off down to the Canaries (how lovely), hoping to work down to the trades, however a ridge of high pressure now blocked our route with no wind and the breeze on the African coast had all but disappeared. Worse still, the massive low pressure systems in the North (which are giving the Northern boats another kicking tonight and will eventually probably deliver some very unpleasant weather to Blighty!). Looked like they affected the normal high pressure that allows the trades to work…all this means we looked screwed for our plan...

So last night was not quite a Mexican party so I sent Ron (Paul) to bed and cracked open some shortbread, kindly donated to the good ship Keysource by Joffy (Thank you bud.... the hamper is grand and includes some salami and a whole cheese stored away for treats in the tropics...

We waited in anticipation for the weather reports this morning and no real improvement, oh no (or similar use of English) we faced going west even further behind the main fleet.
We spent today working through the job "list" I put together because personal administration is the most powerful business tool... anyway I spent most of the day rewiring stuff and also managed to crash the boats network ... at least we’re not in the IT industry! Anyway turned to our netgear watch has broken so I messed around with a load of cables for a while until I managed to get the tough book hooked up to the fleet broadband satellite comms system so we have internet connection.

Ron has spent the day driving in very light and fluky conditions (which he loves) and went up the rig to check everything and take a look a the wind instrument at the top, which looks like we are going to have to replace when we have a very calm day... which by all accounts will be soon!

Anyway we sailed west away from the coast of Portugal for a bit this morning trying to work out what to do next, at the moment we are still committed to our southerly route and have decided to try and get through this very light patch somehow and work down towards Maderia or Canaries. We could still be in jib at Christmas but we are going to give it a go, after all we wanted to sail in the trades so we will try to work our way down there and hope they’re working properly next week... either way we will start getting our shorts on and even if the rest of the fleet are a long way ahead we will have a better tan.

All the best,

Mike 

'Keysource' can be tracked live here: http://lasolidaireduchocolat.geovoile.com/

Five teams have retired and two have made a pit stop to repair. The price paid in the battle of the Bay of Biscay was rather costly for some of the boats. After Jardin Bio (Parnaudeau - Maslard) and Les Conquérants de Normandie (Lepesqueux - Monnet), the guys driving Orca (Tolkien - Brewer), Appart City (Noblet - Guillou) and Ahmas (MacKenzie - Harris) announced their obligation to call it a day. Others, Vale Inco-Nouvelle Calédonie (Ecarlat - Régnier), have called into the port of La Corogne for technical reasons, as have Crédit Maritime  (Carpentier - Maldonado) into a small port in Galice. All had played safe and put the brakes on in the roughest moments of the last low. But they had not reckoned on the tail end of the depression coming up with quite so many squalls which continued to put the boats under strain.

Low pressure system on its way : prudence, vigilance

Torn sails, structural problems, seemingly endless electronic problems, autopilot out of order. The violence of the first front took its toll in the Solidaire du Chocolat. The Bay of Biscay is known for this. Indeed, the Atlantic stage is set the same way. In the hours ahead, the front will be blowing strong winds into the sails of the Class 40. « Given the speed at which the system is moving, it shouldn’t last for much more than 4-6 hours. But the guys are going to have to be careful  » (Richard Silvani, Météo France. )

19 boats, nine nationalities

That’s the cut for the next few hours. Not a lot of fun for the participants who have no choice but to ride it out through to the other side where more pleasant conditions are waiting. Nine nationalities are still represented in the fleet of nineteen boats and they are not giving up yet!  The leaders are fighting hard. Further down the fleet, Vale Inco-Nouvelle Calédonie and Crédit Maritime are racing against the clock to get back into the race, once they have repaired a torn sail and an automatic pilot, respectively. Many are licking their wounds, patching and pasting as required, doing their utmost to stay in the race led since the start by Bruno Jourdren and Bernard Stamm (Cheminées Poujoulat). On a north-westerly course, the Swiss-French team has set a strong average pace of 9 knots – pushing hard upwind in nasty seas!

In their wake, at the first foot fault, any one of a significant number will move in to take the advantage. Pecking order :  Mistral Loisirs – Pôle Santé Elior (Bouchard - Krauss), Initiatives-Novedia (De Lamotte - Hardy) and Cargill-MTTM (Seguin - Tripon) are outsiders, but putting on promising performances. The Finns on Tieto Passion (Rumpannen - Öhman), the Spanish team Tales (Botin - De La Plaza), the Italian pair on Adriatech (Consorte - Aubry), or the Brits on Sail4Cancer (Wright - Brennan) and 40 Degrees (Harding - Merron), are hanging on in there, not likely to give an inch if they can help it ! Not forgetting Telecom Italia (Soldini-D’Ali) playing to perfection its role as odd man out on a completely different course altogether. Lying 7th some 65 miles downdfield, they too have 4 500 ahead to reach Mexico. That’s still a lot of ground to cover.

Well, the last couple of days we've been absolutely hammered by the breeze! we had around 50 miles an hour on Monday night which has led to 5 boats dropping out and 2 have had to go into port to make repairs - also another looks like they've turned around for home on the tracker. It's been really unpleasent.

As I write this, Mike is stood outside in the most awful downpour standing watch - we are expecting 50 miles an hour winds again this evening so we've spent a lot of today getting Keysource ready, checking and rechecking all the safety gear etc. Unfortunately we appear to have found a wind hole and we're floating around off the Portugese coast going nowhere fast! Still it's been a good day for us to get some sleep and have our first hot meal since Sunday - definitely needed.

Hopefully in the next 24 hours we'll be through the worst of the bad weather and can focus more on actually racing the boat. So far discretion has been the better part of valout - we still have 4,500 miles to go and have been looking at getting through the gales first and foremost, racing second - we so do not want to damage the boat and give up on this awesome race.

That's all for now - will let you know how we get on after this evning's storms.

Paul

'Keysource' can be tracked live here: http://lasolidaireduchocolat.geovoile.com/

Sorry for the late report we have been avoiding shipping this morning!

At 7.02UT we were at
4330.9N
1012.7W
COG 168 degT at 7.4kt

We are ok on board, been pretty horrible again the last 24 hours and neither of us feel great but I guess were not alone there!

Jobs list is getting longer but it has been so rough that we have put off tackling the electronics issues until we get to calmer weather. We have been using our back up pilot since Monday but we only have standard compass as NMEA network is down so we have no instruments. We have been sailing her on boat speed for now and manually plotting our position on Deckman.

Hope we can get this working in the coming days as we miss the wind info thats for sure! Today we are focusing on getting some rest and food and keeping rolling hopefully in touch with the main body of the fleet.

Paul & Mike

'Keysource' can be tracked live here: http://lasolidaireduchocolat.geovoile.com/

'Keysource' can be tracked live here: http://lasolidaireduchocolat.geovoile.com/

Favorable conditions, a nice 15-18 knot breeze strengthening gradually has got the Solidaire du Chocolat off to a nice start for the 5 000 course ahead. The stage set for the start was perfect. Golden sunlight on a fine October evening. What lies ahead is another story. A series of autumnal lows is waiting just over the horizon. It will not be long before stealthy wind kick in, stirring up the sea and shaking the fleet into the bargain. A change of scene tonight in the Bay of Biscay.

Mike & Paul took the time to update us this morning:

Morning guys

We are at 50 43.97N 4 19.31W at 0436UT
COG 236 at 11kt
Breeze is 17kt at 121 T

All ok on board we can see a few boats to port and a gaggle ahead. We have just taken the A2 down and put the zero up to follow the breeze round and make the tranistion to solent easier later. Obviously the main concern is the front coming in, the latest routing shows us a little close hauled which would be nice but not for granted at the moment!

Unusually we are eating carrots!! lovely meatballs and pasta for tea earlier!

All the best
Mike & Paul

The non-stop two-handed transatlantic race, exclusively for Class 40 yachts, will commence on 18 October this year from Nantes in France with the finish line in the Mexican state of Yucatan. Twenty-eight crews made up of eleven different nationalities have registered to take part in the race, which is structured so that each team is associated with its own charitable organisation, in addition to a French primary school.

Mike West, Managing Director of Keysource commented: “We are delighted that that WWF UK has agreed to become our chosen charity for La Solidaire du Chocolat. We wanted to team up with a locally-based charity that shares our environmental aims of reducing the carbon footprint of UK businesses and promoting responsible technological best practice.”

Patrick Laine, Director of Corporate Partnerships at WWF UK said: “A recent studied estimated that global green house gas emissions could be reduced by 15% through smart application of IT technology.   WWF is delighted to cooperate with Keysource in leading transformational change in this critical sector.”

It began around 10 o'clock near the "Anne de Bretagne" Bridge. "The Belem" ship cast off and opened for the very first time, a parade which touched people's hearts and impressed the public. The public as committed as ever, flocked in numbers to greet a magnificient fleet. One by one, the "Class 40", mainsail high, made their way downstream the Loire, offering a show which will stay in the memories of the "Solidaire du Chocolat" team members which gathered for this occasion. Charity association volunteers, Patron company representatives, associates, school children, friends and the 48 sailors who take part in the race, make up the big family of this convivial parade.

The official ship race, from St Nazaire to Mexico, starts on Sunday 18th October at 5pm (4pm GMT) and Keysource's boat, made up of Mike West of Keysource and Paul Worswick of Budding Entrepreneur, can be tracked at http://www.lasolidaireduchocolat.com/en.

After Sunday's parade, at around 4pm, everybody went to the SAS of Saint-Nazaire. Once again, the "Solidaire du Chocolat" recipe worked well: an emotional wave rippled through the waters of the estuary which never had seen such a party. Astonishing!