Wednesday 3rd october 2001

Hervé is still in 5th position; he has lost a little bit of his advance in confront of the 4 firsts. The wind is weak and this afternoon he had still 200 miles to go.

When will he arrive? Only Eole knows but it will be around Friday.

You are certainly wondering how Hervé can communicate with the rest of the world during his transat. The answer is dead easy : he cannot communicate as the Class Mini strictly forbids any means of communication during the races (exept by VHF with the skippers who are around him or the comitee boat). The rules are very strict on which electronic items can be taken on the boat. Are authorised (and sometimes even compulsory) :
-A radio SSB to listen to the ultra short waves (BLU)
- A fixed VHF ( range 25 miles) and a portable VHF (range 5 miles)
- A loch/depth for the speed and depth
- A GPS (satellite positioner)
- A SARSAT beacon which can be detected by satellites everywhere in the world.

Are therefore not authorised :
-A mobile phone (as soon as the boat is far from the coast, it is not working anyway…)
- A satellite phone (too expensive according to the Class Mini !)
- A computer
- A fax
- A Navtex (system which enables the reception of weather faxes via an antenna Standard A or C)

Every day, a weather forecast is communicated to the skippers via the VHF or the radio. By this mean, they can also learn what their position is in the classement. This means that Hervé should theroycally know that he is 5th! And this is really good for his motivation!

Every Mini has a beacon Inmarsat D which should give the position of the yacht every 2 hours. It is like that that the comitee immediately realised that something was wrong on Roberto Varinelli's boat.

This beacon has 3 different buttons which can be used in the following cases :
1. green button : there is a problem on the boat but the skipper can continue by his own means
2. orange button : major problem on the boat which necessits assistance. By pressing this button, the skipper will give up and will be qualified as Did not Finish.
3. red button : the skipper requires medical assistance

It is important to note that this year there are 5 following boats with a doctor or a paramedical onboard each of these yachts.

The first leg is already quite long. Therefore, you can imagine that the second leg will seem to be long to Hervé who will be able to talk only to the seagulls, the flying fishes and maybe the dolphins !