On the final straight

Giancarlo Pedote and Anthony Marchand are clearly on the final straight now before their giant leap across the Atlantic, and the two skippers of Prysmian Group are awaiting the big day with equanimity. “We’re ready to go. We finished loading our supplies a while ago since everything was packed up before we even set sail from Lorient. Now all that remains is to go off and get the fresh food and then load it on board, which is what we’ll do tomorrow. Our personal bags of clothing are packed too. Right now, the plan is to have one final check-up of the satellite connections (Internet, Fleet, Iridium…), and then focus on the weather so we can get a good mental image of the course before we leave”, explains Giancarlo, who is dissecting every new grib file that comes in and is regularly taking stock of the situation with his co-skipper and then the meteorologist – router that he is working with for this race. “A nice low-pressure system is spreading out to the north-west of Cape Finisterre. It will play a major role in our passage across the Bay of Biscay and even the North Atlantic. As such, we’re observing the different weather models in a bid to try and understand how they’re moving and their future evolution so as we can negotiate it as best we can once we’re at sea. To put it plainly, we’re refining the routing”, concludes the Italian sailor, who will be participating in the compulsory weather briefing hosted by the organisation tomorrow, between 09:00 and 11:00 UTC, from which point there will be just 24 hours to go till they cast off. Indeed, his boat is scheduled to dock out at 07:39 UTC this Sunday, with the race start still set for 12:15 UTC.