Vendee
Globe - Psychological Battle
A
game of poker
Truth
or mind games? Trying to convince themselves or
the opponents? Clearly, Vincent Riou (PRB) and
Jean Le Cam (Bonduelle) have become masters at
the art of trickery. The two leaders have just
stepped up the psychological warfare. On Sunday’s
radio session, both appeared to show they were
convinced that their diametrically opposed arguments
were right. Concerning the pressure they feel,
Vincent insisted that the closer they got to the
finish, the more the pressure was on the one in
second place. Jean’s answer: “I’m
130 miles behind. What could happen to me? On
the other hand, I’d be a bit worried if
I was in Vincent’s position” Then,
there was the question about the Doldrums. For
Vincent, they don’t have much influence
at this time of year. So, for Jean it was "a
complete mess" of course. As the two competitors
know exactly what the other has said from their
shore team, who updates them regularly, the two
single-handed yachtsmen use their daily radio
link-ups with race headquarters to send each other
messages and try to destabilise the other. In
this psychological warfare, it is important to
convince everyone that everything is fine on board,
even when there is a problem. It can, moreover,
be added that only the two frontrunners have no
problems with their boats, apart from a few minor
details... Maybe that’s why they’re
in the lead, they would argue, trying once again
to convince us all.
Mike
Golding feeling a little down
Ecover’s
broken mainsail halyard has cost the British yachtsman
dearly. Not only did Mike drop back 200 miles
from Vincent Riou, but he exhausted himself, climbing
the mast three times in difficult conditions to
carry out the repairs as quickly as possible.
The result: lots of bruises, physical exhaustion,
and he feels downhearted. Today, Mike Golding
felt “it would take a miracle to get back
up there” with the leaders.
Successful
repairs to Jean-Pierre Dick’s boom
To
the north of the Falklands, off the coast of Argentina,
Jean-Pierre Dick (Virbac-Paprec) managed to repair
his boom, which had split in two. Jean-Pierre
still has a lot of work to do however, to get
his gooseneck refitted, so he can use his mainsail
once again. As if all that wasn’t enough,
Jean-Pierre found a whole lot of giant seaweed
wrapped around his keel. Still smiling and upbeat,
Jean-Pierre put on his diving suit to dive into
10°C water to get rid of these nasty invaders!
Dominique
Wavre moves up to fourth place
The
race between Dominique Wavre (Temenos) and Sébastien
Josse (VMI) is still on. In this remarkable race
covering the whole ocean, the Swiss skipper won
a slight lead, only 2,4 miles ahead of the youngest
competitor in the race, whose boat is no longer
capable of showing her full potential.
Quotes:
Vincent
Riou (PRB): “Things are going better than
I thought. I was slowed down for four hours this
morning in a series of squalls. But the trade
wind is now more stable again, even if it’s
not that strong. I think Jean will try to stay
out where he is to the east until the Doldrums.
However, statistically, the crossing point is
around 27° to 30° West… so I’m
not particularly worried about that. I’m
just pushing the boat along. I’m taking
the time to study the weather charts and then,
I’m going to be able to get on the right
trajectory. Things aren’t looking that clear
after the Doldrums. We’ll be there in three
days, and the situation is changing very quickly.
10 weeks of racing. I wouldn’t have noticed.
There’s always such a lot to do. The excitement
never stops. We jump out of our bunks concentrating
on the race and on getting the boat to make good
headway.”
Jean
Le Cam (Bonduelle): “Everything is fine.
I mustn’t grumble. We’re sailing quickly
and there are no speed cameras. No breathalysers
either. In any case, my last drop of wine goes
back to Christmas. There’s some wind and
sunshine. It feels good. I took my first shower
for a month and a half. That was more than good.
Then, the situation that lies ahead on the other
side of the Equator cheers me up no end. It’s
a complete mess. So the pressure is on PRB. What
could happen to me, 200 miles behind? He has to
defend himself at the front. I’m attacking
from behind. I can go pretty fast in my Bonduelle
because I love her!”
Dominique
Wavre (Temenos): “It’s a real race
up the ocean. I experienced that a bit four years
ago in the same boat with Thomas Coville. Now,
it’s with Sébastien Josse. I saw
him off to my north with the binoculars yesterday
morning. We had the chance to compare our speeds.
We had a long chat on the phone. He was the first
human I’d seen since the start. I burnt
out a third solar panel. I’ve got nine left.
I’ve got a bit of plumbing to do on my ballast
pipes, which are leaking. I’m spending a
lot of time in front of the weather charts. I’m
great friends with my boat, and have been for
a long time now. I can feel she is getting tired,
as I took a lot out of her in the Indian Ocean
and the Pacific. I’m not really thinking
about the finish. I don’t look further ahead
than my next tack on the edge of the high. While
we’re upwind, VMI isn’t suffering
too much and we can race. It’s the Doldrums
that will separate us.”
Jean
Pierre Dick (Virbac Paprec): “I finished
repairing my boom. The internal section was wrapped
up and then strengthened with some battens. I
just pray that it will hold. I still have to fix
it back in place, then fix the gooseneck and hoist
the mainsail. For the moment, the sea is quite
difficult, and I’m expecting a gale. I’m
therefore going to wait a little. Maybe, I’ll
only hoist the sail tomorrow. The repair took
a long time, because of the humidity. But I think
that now my boom is once again rigid. It’s
one problem after another. Yesterday I was dragging
along some seaweed in my wake. It had got caught
up in my keel and without a mainsail, I couldn’t
reverse. So I had to go diving again. I’m
dealing with these problems quite well. I did
some work before the start with someone getting
me to face up to stressful situations. That has
really helped. Then again, I have a lot of support
from friends and family.”
Raphël
Dinelli (Akena Verandas): “We’re a
bit alone here in the middle of the South Pacific,
but we’re making good headway. I’ve
had four or five good days, where I really enjoyed
surfing along at 20 knots. The Pacific is very
lively, but that does enable you to speed along.
It’s not too cold. I’m staying at
this latitude to avoid coming across icebergs.
I’m pleased to be on the Southern Motorway
after all the worries and torments of the Indian
Ocean. I’ve made up some ground over Anne
Liardet (225 miles). I’m keeping an eye
on my boat. I won’t take any risks to get
one position ahead in the rankings.”
Mike
Golding (Ecover): “I rather expect we will
continue to get a breeze from the East and make
steady progress North towards the Doldrums. There
is quite an unsteady breeze, an hour ago I had
33 knots of wind in a squall and 30 mins ago I
had 8 knots of wind, and now I have 15 knots of
wind, so it’s hard to say what is going
to happen next! There is not much room for strategy,
there are soft patches of breeze, there is not
much I can do for the foreseeable future. I am
not in a good place anymore, I am not sufficiently
lifted. I just have to tough this bit out and
wait for conditions to change before I can start
to make some gains. 48 hours ago I was in the
thick of it, yesterday was pretty dreadful, I
was really sore, sore from the climb, sore from
the bruises and the sheer physical effort. I climbed
the mast 3 times that day, once at night. As soon
as I got the main up yesterday morning, I had
to tack the boat so I stacked the sails before
the tack, and then spend most of the day moving
the gear was tough, I had to take breaks to stop
and rest and get some sleep because I was really
exhausted. Last night I managed to get some sleep
during the night, even though it is really unstable
I have managed to find some slots for some sleep.
I do not seem to have any difficulty sleeping!
If only luck was dished out like school dinners!
I have seen some frigate birds, which are peculiar
to this area. Seen two Japanese trawlers and I
have seen quite a few whales in the South Atlantic.
This is relatively nice sailing, without the squalls
it would be fantastic! The boat is not perfect,
but I am fully up to speed. Both halyard breaks
were different, one at the block at the top (of
the mast) and one at the jammer at the bottom.
It should not break anymore, but you can never
be certain!”
Source : Vendée Globe 2004
www.vendeeglobe.org
