Puerto Limon, a small town of around 6,000 inhabitants on the east coast of Costa Rica, has played host overnight to Transat Jacques Vabre competitors. Jean-Pierre Dick and his co-skipper Jérémie Beyou kicked off the festivities at 01:00 and were welcomed by race officials, journalists and a few bemused local residents.
This sort of event is not commonplace in Puerto Limon. There is no cruising harbour, so the race yachts are moored in the commercial port tucked in between container ships carrying bananas and mangoes. To get into the area, you need credentials and are checked over by the sentry on the gate, workmen and containers are more common here than champagne spray and celebrations!
It is said that the city is disreputable and that it can be dangerous after dark. Revellers crowd the streets well into the night and the bars pulse with reggae music. There are little groups of people on every street corner that watch the shore crews come and go – quite sinister.
Dominique and Michele are racing their last few Caribbean miles and while the podium is out of reach they are still keen to make it into the general ranking, they are using every tactical trick in the book to catch the group ahead of them and – who knows – slip past…
The Mirabaud duo still believes they can do it, they haven’t let up for a minute. The Burton brothers are just ahead, but not by far and last night was proof that things can change from one minute to the next.
Michele gives some insight from onboard: “It’s the end of the day, we had a beautiful sunset behind us and we have put in our umpteenth gybe. We are well trained now, we step into our positions in silence and glance at one another once it is finished with a sense of satisfaction, it’s a bit like one of those silent movies!
The night went smoothly, there were no squalls and the sea was glassy calm. The boat was well balanced with the kite up and we sailed our polars. The breeze was light and we had the first hints that it was going to drop out completely before we could get to Puerto Limon. For the moment though, we are happy to make the most of the last bit of breeze, the starry night and our 13knot progress.
Our plotters are showing the outline of Costa Rica, still a fair way off though, particularly as our course is not a straight line. The routings urge us to approach from the North and our ETA in Puerto Limon for now is 01:00 French time on the 20 November – all depending on the weather of course!
Michele’s predictions are confirmed ashore where we are waiting for them: there is very little wind under the rain clouds that are dotted along the coastline, so plenty of surprises still in store for the Mirabaud duo.
