Romain Attanasio (PURE - Best Western) was on the 0900hrs UTC radio calls this morning. The skipper who should arrive tomorrow says the last few days have not been easy:
"Right now there are fewer squalls, but the wind is shifting in all directions. I lost my main anemometer at my masthead two months ago, the spare one is not working very well, but you really need wind mode, because the boat zigzag quite a lot. Last night the boat gybedsuddenly I saw that the anemometer was not saying anything, so I had to install the spare aerial at the back of the boat while we were downwind and then it worked better than before. Since then for 30 minutes my it has not worked again it may be a problem with the connection. We are near the finish and I tell myself that we can just work in compass mode, but the wind is so unstable that it is not easy.
I don't know how the conditions will be for the finish. It is not easy to know how it will be. The GFS file shows 30 knots of northerly wind at the Isle of Yeu and the Arpège file shows that the wind is blowing at 15 knots. The two of them don't match and it's been like that for several days. I hope they will concur. All we know is that it is straight in on the port gybe. It feels like it's over, but there are still problems to deal with right until the end.
I think about the finish all the time, I tell myself not to think about it, but I can't help it. I really want to be finished. It is starting to get tough. The boat is tired too, the night was complicated, I no longer want to eat what I have left.
I'm sorry to complain but this has been the hardest Atlantic climb I’ve ever had. I want to be able to tell myself it's okay and soon it will be over. And after my finish there will be other worries back ashore and I will miss being at sea, but for now I just can't wait to be finished.”
And so I am not really enjoying these last few days because it has been really hard, but the start of the ascent it was great, that first hard upwind storm it was hard but it passed and it was good again along the coast of Brazil, the doldrums were hell, the trade winds were great ... so yes there were lots of cool moments! But from just before the Azores it has been complicated it's been stormy, the wind is unstable, I'm in a squall and it's raining, it is OK because I can see clearly, but at night it is not so good, but I will do my best for my last night. "
Romain Attanasio / PURE - Best Western
