Focusing on successfully negotiating the Azores High

This Thursday, whilst making headway some 1,000 miles or so offshore of the coast of Mauritania, Giancarlo is contending with an ENE’ly wind of between 15 and 18 knots, punching into the sea, which is not facilitating his boat’s progress. “Right now we’re kind of punching into the waves, which is a bit annoying at times because they may only measure 2 to 2.5 m, but there is a relatively short interval between them. This is proving to be a little bothersome when reaching because it slams quite a lot. If you disregard the temperatures, conditions are a little reminiscent of the Deep South at the moment”, explained the skipper of Prysmian Group, who will gradually bend his course round to circle the famous Azores High, whilst the wind is set to continue lifting over the coming hours. The challenge? To negotiate the rounding of the ridge of high pressure as best he can so he can quickly hook onto the SW’ly breeze ahead of the depression rolling out of Newfoundland and thus close on Les Sables d’Olonne. “The climb up the North Atlantic is forecast to be easy, with a fair few transitions to deal with as well as several low pressure systems associated with the latter, which will push us as far as the Bay of Biscay. We know that traversing Biscay is never simple, especially so in January. We’ll have to be quick but careful”, assures the Florentine, who also takes this opportunity to encourage every one of us to show our support for the third project backed by Prysmian Group and Electriciens sans Frontières, namely the mission to provide lighting in schools in N’grouli and Bawelessi in Togo. “For this particular project, which consists of setting up a photovoltaic installation in both villages, 975 metres of cable is required. A great many of us believe in this project so please click on and like the news on our social networks. I’m really counting on you to help us!”