Globe40: South before East

American Joe Harris along with Roger Junet are competing in the Globe40, a multi-leg doublehanded round the world race in Class40s. Seven teams were at the beginning on June 26, with five teams now on the third leg from Mauritius to Auckland, New Zealand.

After leaving the Indian Ocean island nation on September 11th, Harris files this report from onboard GryphonSolo2:

We are back at sea here on Day 3, heading south to find the Westerly winds before turning East to Australia. The stop in Mauritius was great. My wife Kim and son Emmett and daughter Sophie all made the 24-hour trip from Boston and met us on the dock upon our arrival, which was very nice.

We first all cleaned the boat up alongside my co-skipper Roger Junet and his girlfriend Hannah Morrill and then set off to see Mauritius!

After staying near the marina for a few days, we headed south to the town of Flic and Flac (we mainly went there for the name) and rented an Airbnb for four days, and finally relaxed a bit and decompressed. Roger and I were pretty burned out and exhausted and needed a break.

The apartment was right on the beach so we walked and swam and lay in the sun and ate a lot and drank a lot and generally completely relaxed. However, every day there was still boat stuff to deal with in terms of sails, maintenance, repairs etc. but it was a really nice break from being offshore for 39 days (7000nm course from Cape Verde Islands to Mauritius).

We also all needed to stretch our legs so we did two days of hiking in the southern end of Mauritius where there is a very vertical volcanic mountain that we climbed with a guide that proved extremely challenging.

It started with a mellow pitch and then about halfway up it became more hand-over-hand climbing and finally the last pitch to the summit was really exposed and challenging rock climbing.

We all breathed a large sigh of relief when we made it to the top and looked down over this protected bay where more than 50 kite surfers were buzzing around like little bugs on the shallow water protected by the reef. If you want to learn to kite surf, Mauritius would be the place. Overall, it was a really nice break and respite after being at sea and wonderful to be back with my family.

When we came back to the boat at Port Louis, my family flew home and Roger and Hannah and I had six days to work on the boat to get it ready for this leg.

The masthead wind wand was replaced after it had been acting funky, we had our A2 kite repaired after its catastrophic rip, and we carefully went through every aspect of the boat. We then went grocery shopping for 35 days at sea and did a “parade of Sail” with Mauritian guests on Friday before the start on Sunday, which was fun.

So now we are back in the saddle, resuming old routines of 3-hour watches, trimming and changing sails, navigating, repairing stuff, sleeping, eating, and living on a 40-foot boat offshore. It’s not all joy, but the weather has been good so far so we are grateful for that.

We look forward to the upcoming challenge of the Southern Ocean as we go over 1,000 miles south before turning left and into the strong prevailing westerly winds and seas from behind as we head East towards Australia and ultimately up to New Zealand.

Race details – Entries – Tracker

Note: As the scoring format gives extra value to the longer legs, Leg 3 is similar to Leg 2 as it is worth a coefficient 3.

Leg Two Results:

Leg One Results:

The inaugural Globe40 is an eight leg round the world race for doublehanded Class40 teams. As all legs count toward the cumulative score, the longer distances more heavily weighted. The first leg, which took seven to eight days to complete, had a coefficient 1 while the second leg is ranked as a coefficient 3 leg. The race is expected to finish March 2023. Seven teams were ready to compete, but a Leg 1 start line collision eliminated The Globe En Solidaire with Eric and Léo Grosclaude (FRA) while the Moroccan team of Simon and Omar Bensenddik on IBN BATTOUTA retired before the Leg 2 start.

Start:
Tangier, Morocco – June 26

Stopovers:
Leg 2 start: Sao Vincente, Cape Verde Islands – July 17
Leg 3 start: Port Louis, Mauritius – September 11
Leg 4 start: Auckland, New Zealand
Leg 5 start: Papeete, French Polynesia
Leg 6 start: Ushuaia, Argentina
Leg 7 start: Recife, Brazil
Leg 8 start: St Georges, Grenada

Finish:
Lorient, France