Destination coffee

On the Green Gold Route...

From Le Havre, France's leading coffee importing port to Salvador de Bahia, in Brazil, the world's leading coffee grower and exporter... The Transat Jacques Vabre has the all the flavour of a good strong coffee!

A single course for all the fleets on the vast open spaces of the Atlantic... 4340 miles to cover as the crow flies... Two opposing weather systems for the two different hemispheres... For the landlubber, that is the simple equation that needs to be solved by the two-handed crews on this North-South crossing...

But wait a moment! This simple statement hides some variable elements. First, there are the effects of the Channel just after the start, then the crossing of the Bay of Biscay... between three and five days of slogging it out before a change in the weather, when you reach the trades. The wet weather gear and fleeces can be stowed away to be replaced by shorts and sun-cream before you cross the line and go upside down...

Zero degrees Latitude... soon you will be back on dry land at the end of the adventure. However, two thirds of the way through the voyage, there will be one more weather hurdle, which could always upset things: the Doldrums, a zone of unpredictable winds, where you encounter violent thunderstorms, followed by calms and constantly changing wind directions... In short, a sticky problem to get through, but which opens the door to the Southern Tropics...

Even if a few miles from the Brazilian coast, thermal breezes may still hold up the sailors and delay their arrival in Bahia... in the end, this hurtling run should take around twelve days or so.

Principaux courants

Vents dominants

Route monocoques 4340 milles

Longitude Latitude Chaque degré mesure la distance à l'équateur et situe une position sur l'axe horizontal de la carte.
Chaque degré mesure la distance à l'équateur et situe une position sur l'axe vertical de la carte.
1 degré = 60 minutes = 60 milles = 111 km
1 petit carreau = 30 milles = 56 km