The second leg of the 2010 Solitaire du Figaro starts tomorrow and will see the skippers leave Gijon (Spain) for Brest (France), 418 miles further North. The fleet will go back to some of the treacherous zones they had to cope with on their way down - notably the tricky Raz de Sein, between Sein Island and the tip of Brittany (Pointe du Raz), a narrow and very tidal passage. The final part will be played in the Brest Bay, which is accessed via another narrow ‘corridor’, and this potential congestion point - subject to currents as well - may well act as a gate. Good timing tide-wise will be crucial! Jonny and his rivals will have light breeze to start with, and most of the leg should be sailed upwind.

After an exhausting first 500+ mile leg, Jonny gave us his impressions from Gijon, where he arrived on Saturday, July 31 at 5:00 in the morning, finishing in 36th place.

“I was really happy to have nailed it before the Barfleur tip”, says Jonny Malbon enthusiastically recounting his good tactical moves, “I managed to remain in the right pack during first half of the leg. Going through the Chenal du Four in Brittany (note: a notoriously treacherous zone of very strong currents) some guys decided to go through the rocks and I followed suit - on the charts it looked horrendously scary but I knew it was the right move, and it worked. Tackling Biscay I was pretty happy, with a lot of boats a long way behind. By the time the boat was stable and I could leave the pilot on, I made the conscious choice of getting some rest, I took six slots of 10 minutes sleep: slept, woke up, checked everything and went back to sleep. At that stage I was talking to myself and seeing things, I really needed it. Tactically I played in the middle, and for a while I was 22nd or 23rd while in the East boats were suffering - at that time we did not really know the guys in the West were doing so well, and it was tricky to keep the speed up with the spinnaker in light winds and choppy seas…”

“The positive thing was to have boats around me, I realised I had the same speed so it was frustrating for everybody, but at least I wasn’t stressing on my own thinking I was slower than the others. I started slipping down the leaderboard (note: the front of the fleet escaped when the ridge trapped the the boats that were behind) but it was still a real fight. I had Fred Rivet and Damien Cloarec behind me, I had to work hard until Gijon to finish in front of Damien. At the end I had dropped my kite because the angle got tighter, but when I saw him coming back hard on me I re-hoisted and finished almost upwind with the spi, like a Code 0. So all in all, I was a bit upset not to be slightly higher up the rankings, but on the flipside of that I’m happy because I’ve stayed in touch with everybody and I feel I’ve sailed a good race. There’s a couple of tactical choices which could have been better, of course, but looking ahead to the next leg I feel ready to go and I’m impatient to take the start.”

Sleep… what sleep?
This first leg has been brutal on the sailors, with tricky coastal racing and light conditions not allowing for a lot of rest - and that is a real understatement, because Jonny managed to get 3 hours of sleep out of 3 days and 15 hours at sea! “I ate all the time to keep my energy going, but I was so shattered I heard voices and saw somebody on the boat. Very vivid hallucinations! You know it’s your mind playing tricks but at the same time it’s so real it’s amazing.”

You can follow Jonny on Leg 2 of the Solitaire du Figaro. Click HERE for the tracking map, latest news and results…