Vendee
Globe - Mike Back Into Second Already!
On
this the 66th day of racing, Mike Golding (Ecover)
has snatched back second position after rapid
repairs to his broken mainsail halyard yesterday.
The top trio are squeezed into just 19.3 miles,
900 miles from the Brazilian coast, 260 miles
separating Vincent Riou (PRB) and Mike Golding
in the West from Jean Le Cam (Bonduelle) in the
East. As the temperature rises in all senses of
the term, the leaders focus on slinking through
a narrow passageway between a depression to the
West and a ridge of high pressure extending out
from the Saint Helena High to their right. The
top trio are neck and neck on this final sprint
5000 odd miles from the finish, each in a position
to snatch the top spot at any time.
A
dejected Sébastien Josse (VMI) may have
a solution to his current engine failure though
the time is pressing with Dominique Wavre (Temenos)
back to within just 134 miles of him. Jean Pierre
Dick (Virbac paprec) and Nick Moloney (Skandia)
remain in the same depression, holding onto a
favourable South-Westerly wind until they reach
Cape Horn, Nick possibly being caught up by another
depression without very much of a transition zone.
Behind them Joé Seeten (Arcelor Dunkerque
), Conrad Humphreys ( Hellomoto), Bruce Schwab
(Ocean Planet) and Benoît Parnaudeau (Mex
havelaar Best Western) are likely to make fairly
good speeds riding along unhindered eastbound
in a depression. Bruce lucky enough to escape
the big seas that Conrad is suffering and Joé
on fire with the highest speed of the fleet (341.5
miles/24 hr). In the coming days Benoît
and Anne Liardet may have to watch their backs
with a phenomenon annexing Hurricane Kerry slipping
down to the South-East with the possibility of
a lot of wind. At the tail of the fleet conditions
for Raphael Dinelli (Akena Verandas) and Karen
Leibovici ( Benefic) look decidedly favourable,
enabling the duo to make good averages in strong
South-Westerlies on a direct course. Karen will
join the rest of the fleet in the western hemisphere
tomorrow.
The
clear voice of Vincent Riou described conditions
out on the water as very sporty today on the climb
up the Atlantic along the Brazilian coast. “It’s
a mighty battle and it’s not over yet. We’re
still set for a good fight for the foreseeable
future. It was a hard night and I am a little
tired, even if my general form is good. The wind
is very shifty and the weather complicated. Today
we are making good progress, better than Jean
anyway! (Laughs). We’re making lots of sail
changes and lots of gybes. You really have to
be on the ball to scrape each mile... The temperature
is climbing. It is beginning to get warmer and
the water is at 20 degrees. I’m beginning
to lack sleep. I sleep on the basis of 2 hours
per day in 10 minute chunks. We’re on the
final sprint, you have to be on the attack. Mike
Golding has really come back into the match. He
was held up last night in contrast to Jean and
I, which explains the variations in the ranking.
I spend a lot of time keeping an eye on everything,
especially on the wear on the rig...”
Mike
Golding is indeed right back into action averaging
nearly 3 knots more boat speed over the past 4
hours. “Admittedly yesterday wasn’t
a good day but I’m feeling better now. In
the end my repairs weren’t too damaging
in terms of time. The halyard had simply had enough
it wasn’t a question of chafe. It failed
where it continually runs through a piece at the
top of the mast. I hope it’s not a failure
I’ll see again for thousands of miles. I’ve
done all the work I hoped to do up the mast. I’m
now on a route further West as my routing shows
that there is a faster passage that side of the
water. It looks like it is a faster passage but
there is likely to be a see-saw motion in the
speed and it’s difficult to know which course
will reap the most rewards. If Jean manages to
cross the system quickly he will pick up the breeze
quicker but he will be upwind. I can’t do
anything about it but he’s a bit too far
away. We’ll have to stick to our strategies
now but it was encouraging when Vincent changed
course onto the same side of the course as me
last night. I have been pushing myself hard with
a lot of sail changing last night. I just wanted
to maintain the separation and now we’ll
be concentrating on picking our way through a
trough. I’ve got nearly new halyards all
round and if yesterday’s incident had to
happen it was as good a place as any. It would
have been sad if it was nearer the finish. I was
disappointed yesterday as I thought I was going
to take the lead but there’s clearly no
time to mope now!”
Just
8.3 miles behind him, a tired Jean Le Cam (Bonduelle)
was hoping that his much more easterly option
would reap its rewards in the long term. “Everything’s
ok. We’ll see what the future holds. Everything
changes everyday and there’s certainly no
habits here. The race is working out pretty well.
We’re used to being on deck and not sleeping
much now. The motivation of being neck and neck
with the leaders is a big help and it’s
clear that when the pressure finally drops off,
the feeling will be like nothing else. It’s
a bit grey today, I wish I had some sun. The weather
situation looks complicated, there’s nothing
more to say. We’ve been worrying for 2 months,
even 2 weeks before the start and it’s not
going to stop now as we close in on the finish.
These boats are amazing, they even go fast in
light winds. I’ve changed sail 3/ 4 times
in the past 24 hours, that’s half an hour
each time, not including tidying everything away
afterwards. I worked on the electrics yesterday
and I’m not worried about the gear as I
checked everything.”
Gear
failure is sadly still very much of an issue for
Sébastien Josse who was understandably
dejected today, luck really not seeming to be
on his side since hitting a growler in the Pacific.
“I haven’t managed to repair my engine.
The spring is broken and I don’t have another
one. For now I’m making do with a wind generator
and some solar panels so I am dependant on the
sun. Similarly the way the boat lists and the
position of the sails have an influence. It’s
barely an emergency solution. My shore crew believe
that they may have found a way of making the engine
work with 2 of the 3 cylinders though so we’ll
see what that does.” Josse is currrently
averaging over 11 knots and managing to stave
off his pursuers.
The
Anglo-Saxons mid fleet look to be in fairly favourable
condition making good speeds, Nick Moloney and
Conrad Humphreys racking up over 300 knot averages.
American Bruce Schwab is purposefully opting for
the safest but longest route up north to try to
avoid both the icebergs and the big seas, Benoît
Parnaudeau closing in on him just over 200 miles
behind...
Quotes
from the Boats:
Nick
Moloney (Skandia) :“870 miles to go the
Cape Horn, under a 1000, still moving quite well
towards it. Looking at the weather, it looks quite
breezy for my arrival on the 14th or 15th. It
looks like progress is going to be ok until then.
We should get some westerly wind which will let
me get south. Right now there’s nothing
too extreme, 30 knots or so. In the Southern Ocean
the wind presses your oilskins against your body,
its so heavy. I might have to go in a hurry here,
got big squalls. Clouds are big and black and
the wind is at 40 knots. It’s freezing cold
and it’s a very solid wind, two reefs in
the main and staysail, tad overpowered at times
making good progress and hanging onto it [the
winds from the depression ahead]. Not 100% sure
why ... The air is so cold and so dense that it
is strong and powerful, the gusts hit you like
someone pushing you when you are out on deck.”
Bruce
Schwab (Ocean Planet): “We’re doing
ok. We’re having fun. The speed is ok but
not super fast. I’m making 12/15 knots and
making over 13 knot averages in 24/28 knots of
wind. I’m under double reefed main and working
jib. The pace is good but I’m not overly
powered. The seas are much better so I’m
not getting shaken up as much. The storm last
night was very difficult, like driving along a
rough road. Benoît (Parnaudeau) is making
very fast progress in good wind on a better VMG.
He likes the south more. I think I should be ok
but he may gain a bit more as I’ll have
to sail further. I just want to minimise the time
that I’m in the icebergs. When it’s
rough the keel really creaks and groans. I’m
a real perfectionist and though the sound from
the keel may not be a problem I don’t want
to push it really hard and find that there is
something wrong. The noise is quite something
and I hope that it doesn’t mean that I’ll
have to play the electric guitar when I get back!
I’m pretty happy with my performance, all
the more so as 2 months before the race I wasn’t
sure I’d make the start. For the next month
I’m going to go carefully and it will be
a great feeling when I get round the Horn. The
race itself is just part of a very long, long
journey in doing the Vendée Globe.”
Norbert
Sedlacek (Brother) was present at today’s
radio session in Paris: “My boat is still
in Cape Town. We’re working on finding a
way of repairing the keel but unfortunately we
won’t be able to haul the boat out at the
Yacht Club where it is. I’d like to leave
as quickly as I can so as to deliver the boat
up to Les Sables, either crewed or solo depending
on my physical shape after the repairs.”
Raphaël
Dinelli (Akena Verandas): “There is a powerful
wind, 45 knots with gust of 48. I am making 18
knots on the GPS but the seas are very big. They
are very built up with breaking waves and even
under 3 reefs and staysail I broached twice as
a result of some big troughs in the waves. Apart
from that, we’re making good progress. The
boat is behaving really well and I’m remain
prudent. The Pacific is proving very harsh for
the moment. At the this pace I could reach the
Horn in 12 to 13 days’ time. I hope there’ll
be a little break in this infernal rhythm though
and it is impossible to sleep.”
Karen
Leibovici (Benefic): “The 10 knots South-Westerly
wind is stable but it should veer round to the
west between now and this evening and then North-West
tomorrow. The weather is grey but it’s not
raining at the moment. I had a surprise last night
when I went up on deck and discovered that I was
encircled by 6 other boats. I think it was fishermen
as I was still on the southern bank of New Zealand
where it shallows but their lights were really
strange. I’ve just scooped out some water
from up front, it’s a real swimming pool.
I don’t even want to think about the crash
box. That said it empties itself under the chart
table whenever I’m on the other tack which
stops it from getting too full. I’m the
only boat still in the East now and I can no longer
see anyone on my computer screen. The others have
hit wind and are hooling along at over 12 knots
and my heart sinks when I think of the gap that
is opening up day after day.”
Source : Vendée Globe 2004
www.vendeeglobe.org
