What is the most likely weather scenario in this Route du Rhum – La Banque Postale?
The two basic patterns are firstly a series of low-pressure areas moving across the North Atlantic, which force the skippers to pass through several fronts in a row, or alternatively we are looking at a high-pressure area stuck over the British Isles. The first scenario imposes a lot of strategy, while the second means we can look forward to a race where speed is important to reach the trade winds. After that, the crossing itself will involve downwind sailing at moderate or high speed. In the final stretch, there is often a lot of uncertainty: will the trade winds be present or not? Will there be thunderstorms? … The goal is to avoid calm zones and the areas where there is too much wind or the seas are too heavy. Sometimes, this means choosing the least bad option. What are the dangers and the greatest difficulties? When the major weather patterns are well established, we can deal with them. It becomes more complicated for example with fronts, which can disappear or divide to form a se
