Instability on the road to Recife
Faster than yesterday’s routing, since midday Charles Caudrelier has been encountering the calm conditions forecast on the various weather models. While the speed has plummeted on the approach to Recife in northern Brazil, the temperature has shot up in the carbon cockpit of the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild. In this section of the course, round the world sailors usually benefit from the trade wind of the southern hemisphere to quickly close on the equator. Instead, the leader of the Arkea Ultim Challenge is having to contend with a patch of very light winds, reminiscent of an early doldrums. Over the course of the morning, to mark his 38th day at sea, the five-arrow giant crossed the wake he left during his descent of the Atlantic, thus regaining the route he took offshore of Salvador de Bahia one month on!
Storms and light winds on the menu 

Since midday, Charles Caudrelier has had to deal with a very shifty zone punctuated by significant storm activity. The anemometer is fluctuating according to the clouds and the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild is keeping pace: polled making over 44 knots in a squall at around 13:00 UTC, two hours later he was making headway at just 5 knots… A scenario that calls for a great deal of effort from the sailor, who has to be right on top of the trimming at all times, it was nicely anticipated by Gitana Team’s routing trio and it is set to last at least as far as the north of Brazil.     

Wednesday 14 February, on-board video 

At daybreak, Charles Caudrelier made the most of the lovely sailing conditions to do a stocktake aboard the five-arrow giant. We get the low-down on the remaining food on day 38 at sea and the washing of warm clothes for the end of the course. He also reviews an incident that happened yesterday when his forearm got caught around one of the wind generator’s propellers. Fortunately he was more frightened than hurt.     

Ranking at 18:00 UTC   

1/ Maxi Edmond de Rothschild - Charles Caudrelier     
2/ Maxi Banque Populaire XI - Armel Le Cleac’h – 1,589 miles behind the leader   
3/ Sodebo Ultim 3 - Thomas Coville – 2,015.9 miles behind the leader   
4/ Actual Ultim 3 - Anthony Marchand – 5,724.8 miles behind the leader   
5/ Ultim Adagio - Eric Peron 6,711.2 miles behind the leader     

Retirement  SVR Lazartigue - Tom Laperche     

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