Vendee
Globe - Mike Golding Remains sSerene About His
Option
Another
gale for Nick Moloney.
- Mike Golding (Ecover) coming back strongly.
He is 42.5 miles from Jean Le Cam (Bonduelle)
in the 3 o’clock rankings.
- Mike Golding (Ecover) is the furthest west of
the leaders, Jean Le Cam (Bonduelle) the furthest
east. We may well see a change in leader over
the next 24 hours.
- Another low-pressure area coming up in the next
24 hours for Nick Moloney (Skandia).
- Official retirement of Patrice Carpentier (VM
Matériaux)
- Dominique Wavre (Temenos) rounded the Horn at
6h30 GMT this morning.
“There
are times, when you have to make a choice. My
interpretation led me to take an option to the
east. There’s no point in staying where
you are and not taking any risks. I may give up
first place for a while, but it’s to take
advantage of the situation further down the road.”
King Jean, as he is nicknamed in France (Jean
Le Cam on Bonduelle), has chosen to take a gamble
and try a different option. He has clearly decided
to try his luck out to the east, which means he
will be the first to enter the area of variable,
light winds. If he has done that, he obviously
has his reasons for believing that he will also
be the first to get out of that zone. While he
still has 14.1 miles lead in the 3 o’clock
rankings over the second-placed Vincent Riou,
he is aware that by moving away from the direct
route, he is losing precious miles in the rankings
as each hour passes. Mike Golding (Ecover) is
staying to the west, continuing to make good headway
and catching up Vincent Riou (PRB), who was only
28.4 miles from him in the 3 o’clock rankings
with Jean Le Cam 42.5 miles ahead. Mike Golding
is confident he has made the right choice for
the long as well as the short term. If in the
short term, the rankings may well prove him right,
we’re going to have to wait for 36 hours
to see whether Jean Le Cam’s option was
the right one or not. The current sailing conditions
are a 10-15 knot north westerly, which is moving
around by up to 20°. In other words, they
are sailing upwind, which is enabling Ecover to
show all her potential.
“I,
Patrice Carpentier, skipper of the boat VM Matériaux
taking part in the Vendée Globe race declare
I am making a stopover on Saturday 8th January
in the port of Lyttelton (near Christchurch).
This stopover is due to technical problems on
the boat starting with a broken boom, which will
be repaired on the spot. I am therefore receiving
external assistance and putting myself out of
the Vendée Globe race, as laid down in
the rules. Patrice Carpentier.”
The sailor-journalist made it to New Zealand late
yesterday afternoon, and is therefore officially
out of this Vendée Globe. However, just
like Marc Thiercelin (ProForm), Patrice will finish
his round the world voyage, as he will once again
set sail alone to head for Les Sables d’Olonne
outside of the race rules, as soon as the repairs
have been carried out on Thierry Dubois’
former Solidaires.
Dominique Wavre (Temenos) rounded the Horn this
morning at 6h30 GMT in some hellish conditions.
With the wind from behind, huge breakers and gusts
up to 67 knots, Dominique certainly had some scary
moments as he rounded the mythical cape. This
will go down in the history books and will be
something the Swiss skipper will never forget,
as this was his sixth rounding of the Horn (four
races around the world with a crew and twice in
the Vendée Globe)! Dominique covered the
distance from Les Sables d’Olonne to Cape
Horn in 61 days, 18 hours and 28 minutes.
Nick
Moloney (Skandia) is waiting for another low-pressure
area to arrive. Currently just in front of the
cold front, he is experiencing some tough conditions
and huge seas. There are currently 7-11 metre
troughs and the wind is expected to reach 50 knots
in the coming hours. With two reefs taken in on
the mainsail and the trinquette, Nick is making
headway, but knows that at any time, he may run
towards the north, if conditions become unbearable.
Cape Horn is 1650 miles to his east. That is close,
but at the same time so far away, so each mile
he covers towards it cheers him up.
Quotes
:
Mike
Golding (Ecover) : “The next 24 hours is
going to be quite telling for Jean. We should
keep moving. I hope we will keep moving north,
PRB and myself. But I’ve been wrong before.
There’s a long way to go. There are still
plenty of opportunities for anyone, who falls
behind. I wouldn’t be surprised to see positions
change more than once on the way back.”
Nick
Moloney (Skandia) : “Tonight it’s
going to get windy. It’s forecast 45-50
knots. I’m very worried about the depression
behind and how I’ll get to Cape Horn. I
feel like I’ve just fixed everything and
am going to break it all again. It’s difficult
being alone. So I have a lot of conversations
with friends on dry land to get my mind off the
boat for a while.”
Vincent
Riou (PRB) : «We’ve got 15 hours of
light airs and after that, things should take
off again fairly quickly. I don’t think
much of Jean Le Cam’s decision to head off
east. The weather conditions are changing very
quickly, so I don’t know what he is up to
out there. For three days, there hasn’t
been a trajectory corresponding to the weather
charts. We know we’re going to run into
the high, but that things will start to change
from behind.»
Jean
Le Cam (Bonduelle) : «I’m not going
off course. I’m simply moving away from
the others. I’ve been tempted to move off
to the right for several days now. The sea is
flat calm, it’s fine weather and the temperature
has risen considerably. There were even a lot
of stars out in the sky. There’s a lot less
stress and you rest better and sleep better too.»
Dominique
Wavre (Temenos) : «That was a truly historic
Cape Horn! I was surprised by the storm. There
was a 40-45 knot wind with a huge cloud behind.
The wind got up to 55, then 60 and touched 67
knots. There was a squally snow shower and everything
went dark. In fact, I had 55 knots of wind for
four hours. It was a tricky passage round The
Horn with some huge breakers. I stayed in the
cockpit feeling very nervous for four hours. You
get the impression that there are no limits and
that it is never-ending. It’s often said
that you pay the price for Cape Horn before or
after. For me it was during!»
Source : Vendée Globe 2004
www.vendeeglobe.org
