Joe Harris: Back to where we began

The 2022-23 Globe40 is an eight-leg doublehanded round the world race in Class40s. Seven teams were at the beginning on June 26, with four teams having started the final Leg 8 on February 24 from St Georges, Grenada to Lorient, France. Among the teams is American Joe Harris with Roger Junet who file this report on February 25, 2023:

We have left the Caribbean island of Grenada and are going back to where we began in Lorient nine months ago. What a journey, and while I think we are all weary, it has been a good stopover in Grenada.

I hauled GS2 at the Clarks Court Boatyard to check the condition of the bottom and also to do a bit of maintenance to the winches and mast cars and all is well with the boat…except that the B&G chart plotter that we use for its GPS and basic navigation has decided to not work.

Translated, we are wholly reliant on our computer-based navigation system using the Adrena software for weather, routing, and now basic navigation. So we have lost our redundancy in navigation systems which kinda sucks. In the event of total meltdown we have a hand-held GPS and paper charts, but really hoping it doesn’t come to that.

Anyhow, this stopover was great because my family and friends joined me and we did party like it was 1999. We rented a swanky Airbnb pad and lived it up for a few days. The crew are there for another couple of days and I’m sure will continue to rock.

Now GS2 is pounding upwind and north in familiar Caribbean waters past St. Lucia and St. Vincent, as I and many of us have chartered sailboats for vacations or racing down here many times. It is the same NNE 15-20k wind as always which is a beat into a pretty good swell.

It is about 3500 miles to Lorient, sailing back into the cold of the North Atlantic- yuk. My machine tells me it will be 18 days. Hope all is well with everyone as we exit winter and February and turn towards Spring and March. Longer days, the proliferation of flora and fauna….

Race details – Entries – Tracker

Note: The scoring format gives extra value to the longer legs. The coefficient for Leg 8 across the Atlantic to Lorient is coefficient 2.

Standings (after seven of eight legs):

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 – October 29
Leg 5 start: Papeete, French Polynesia – November 26
Leg 6 start: Ushuaia, Argentina – January 8
Leg 7 start: Recife, Brazil – February 5
Leg 8 start: St Georges, Grenada – February 24

Finish:
Lorient, France

Source: Globe40