Vendee Globe - Deliverance...
Wednesday, November 17, 2004 - 08:45 PM

Before and after the doldrums, there are few options to play on the approach to the equator, the front of the fleet now just 50 miles from deliverance into the southern hemisphere, forecast for around 2330 GMT tonight. At the 2000 GMT ranking Jean Le Cam (Bonduelle) continues to dominate 15 miles west north-west of the islands of Saint Pierre et Saint Paul, but the pressure is on with each of the remaining 19 competitors gaining ground on him. Second placed Vincent Riou (PRB) and third placed Sébastien Josse (VMI) are now just 20.9 and 27.4 miles from the leader respectively, the latter having a blinder of a day. Back in 5th behind Roland Jourdain, Alex Thomson (Hugo Boss) doesn’t look that well placed out to the west whereas Mike Golding in 7th (Ecover) looks a bit more sprightly even if he is 16.4 miles behind his compatriot. The reasoning behind this is that the wind is refusing up front which means that those now getting in easting as they hit the trades, like Golding, may have a better wind angle, a fact which could benefit the more oriental positions of Nick Moloney (Skandia), Patrice Carpentier (VM Matériaux) and Conrad Humphreys (Hellomoto) further down the track. American Bruce Schwab (Ocean Planet) is very much up in the action too with a great course back in 15th. The majority of the competitors are adopting roughly the same route, and the lateral differences between them are gradually being reduced as they drop down towards the southern Atlantic.

Austrian Norbert Sedlacek is in the process of passing completely to
the east of the Cape Verde islands level with Santo Antao tonight,
879.9 miles from the leader. Meantime the rest of the fleet are making
their way through the doldrums to the equator and though there are no
passage marks, no islands and no capes to round, all the racers are
converging in the middle of the Atlantic towards the same passage, the
six frontrunners, who have escaped the doldrums, virtually in single
file one behind the other. Just miles separate the leaders’ trajectory
now in stark contrast to over 350 miles that separated the most extreme
routes as the fleet passed the Canaries. A compulsory funnel, created
by the crossing of the doldrums, provides and has provided a natural
complication in their game plan and may well open things out again as
the routes diverge once more. In contrast to this thinking, today’s
leaders believe that it may be another three days before this happens.
The unusual weather situation in the southern Atlantic may develop
quickly and the deal may well change in the next 24 hours. As a result
the three coming days could prove more tactical than they seem for the
leaders.

Behind them, the same story is repeated for the nine solo sailors which
form the second group from Jean-Pierre Dick (Virbac-Paprec), 7th, to
Bruce Schwab (Ocean Planet), 15th. All of them have gone headlong into
the doldrums, and not one of them has come out yet. Considerable
shuffling has occured following the rhythm of the squalls. Hervé Laurent
(UUDS), 9th, has shot up 3 places since yesterday. In this group, three
racers (Australian Nick Moloney, Frenchman Patrice Carpentier and
Englishman Conrad Humphreys) are trying a more easterly course which
may well come good once they have crossed the doldrums, on the
condition that they don’t slow down any more than their direct
adversaries to the west… Verdict Thursday morning!