Vendee
Globe - Leap-frogging The Depressions
The
leaders on this 53rd day of racing are jumping
from one depression to another in a highly strategic
game of meteorology. The concertina effects of
a transition between two depressions translates
as a 200.5 mile lead for Jean Le Cam (Bonduelle)
today as he continues to ride the depression ahead.
Behind him Vincent Riou (PRB) and Mike Golding
(Ecover) are concentrating on lining themselves
up for the much deeper chasing depression. As
the hunters touch wind before the hunted, the
variations in speed will be reversed and the gaps
will once again be reduced. This approaching depression
is currently sweeping up the second group with
Wavre/Dick right in the thick of it in a 55 knot
established wind and 70 knot gusts. Currently
forced to sleep in their foulies and boots ready
to race up on deck, the duo are likely to retain
the fast speeds as far as Cape Horn. The celebrated
passage may well prove rather feisty. Further
back from this group, Nick Moloney (Skandia) is
trying to hook onto this same depression to escape
falling into a windless zone between two depressions.
Bruce Schwab (Ocean Planet) is doing better than
he thought, managing to stay ahead of a ridge
of high pressure and Conrad Humphreys (Hellomoto)
is in turbo drive just 179 miles behind him now.
Of our two diverted skippers, Patrice Carpentier
has fixed his boom and is hoping to head back
into the race in a likely 14th position behind
Anne Liardet (Roxy). Meantime, Marc Thiercelin
(ProForm) is just 140 miles from the Bay of Akaroa
where the sailor hopes to make a pitstop. He should
make shelter at the end of tonight GMT.
Achieving
the top speed of the fleet, covering over 350
miles in the past 24 hours, Jean Le Cam is on
a direct route in his own weather system. He has
stretched out his lead to over 200 miles now,
Vincent Riou and Mike Golding in a trailing depression,
set to make up their loss in the long term, having
been forced temporarily off course by shifty,
easing winds.
“I’m
in good form though I didn’t get much sleep
last night – battling to try and make out
the icebergs from the rain showers” said
Mike earlier today. “I’m quite far
south as I was lifted by a breeze to the south.
I went down to around 56.5 degrees south but got
so badly headed that I gybed again. I then made
a very bad north gybe trying to avoid the light
weather and of course get away from the icebergs.
I’m just hanging onto the same system as
PRB and may have 1/ 2 more gybes to make. It’s
not easy. I’ve trying virtually every point
of sail. I keep zigging and zagging and will continue
like that until the wind goes north. I don’t
know how Bonduelle managed to get away like he
has but I feel like I’m on a pretty good
heading now. Once we’re into the new system
coming up behind us we should have more stable
winds. In 24 hours the winds should stabilize
and go round to the west North-West. From then
on I’ll be able to sail on port gybe almost
directly to the Horn. For now it looks like we’ve
got northerly winds pre-cape, followed by lighter
winds and then more northerly after the cape.
My ETA is approximately midday on 3rd January.
I’m working the boat hard to get through
the transition and it would be nice to break the
Cape to Cape record...apart from anything else
it will save us getting low on anything! It’s
a bit milder now with a westerly rather than a
southerly breeze, though it’s still bitterly
cold. I saw some break in the cloud yesterday.
The cloud cover down here is so impressive that
it’s claustrophobic.”
Dominique
Wavre (Temenos) is already in the midst of the
depression chasing Mike, caught in the throes
of a wild storm in survival mode. “It’s
a bit tense! I’m in a storm. It’s
a dark night and the noise is terrible. The anemometer
reads between 50 and 55 knots. We’re in
survival mode! The wind has risen throughout the
day and I have gradually been taking in reefs.
At the moment I am under 4 reefs and trinquette
and it’s going well. I am a bit stressed
as I fear breakage. I am trying to relax by sleeping
in small 10 minute chunks, but there are some
strong gusts and you have to be ready for everything.
I am in foulies and boots, ready to act. I am
making 14 knots, 20 in the surfs. After a week
becalmed under the Tasman Sea, we are being scooped
up into the storm without a transition. The difference
has been brutal even though we were warned of
it.” Jean Pierre Dick (Virbac Paprec) is
also ensnared in the same system, while Sébastien
Josse (VMI) can feel it coming.
In
10th and 11th place respectively, Bruce Schwab
(Ocean Planet) and Conrad Humphreys (Hellomoto)
are steaming along and back in 13th place, Patrice
Carpentier (VM Matériaux) is heading back
into the race tonight. “I have moored up
200 metres from shore (South Tasmania). It has
curious vegetation but it’s rather a pleasant
place. It’s silly that I won’t have
the time to visit it. Last night, all was calm
so I made the most of it to hoist the mainsail.
Ah yes! The repairs to the boom are complete and
I can hoist the sail up to the second reef. I
made a kind of sleeve as planned. I sawed 40 centimetres
off the boom and used the piece to join together
the two ends. I wanted to join all of it with
some carbon material, but I had the rather unpleasant
surprise of discovering that half the little 30cl
of resin I had left had gone hard. I boiled it
up and spread it out as best I could, but it was
of little use. As a result I had to sacrifice
my spare battens, making a kind of 80 cm splint
around the sleeve.”
Karen
Leibovici (Benefic) brings up the 16 strong fleet,
and is currently over 5000 miles back from the
leader having made a respectable 242.8 mile day.
Quotes
from the Boats:
Raphaël Dinelli (Akena Verandas): “I
am in a very complicated southerly and my series
of misfortunes continue. I was behind the cold
front this morning and I had a succession of squalls.
Some of them had no wind in them, others had 40
knots. It was very bizarre and I ended up getting
surprised by a 45 knot gust which sent the boat
into a broach under one reefed main and small
gennaker. The boat remained over on its ear for
quarter of an hour. The good news is that the
mast held superbly, though the gennaker blew out.
It came away at the masthead and it was war to
try and detach it. I am exhausted and must nevertheless
get the pace up again as a ridge of high pressure
is coming in on top of me and I don’t want
to get becalmed. All these unstable conditions
have forced me to manoeuvre a great deal. My boat
is very physical with winches everywhere and no
grinders. (Raphael cants his keel by winch). The
upshot of that is that I have a fine lumbago which
is really painful and which I am trying to care
for with the help of Doctor Chauve (Race Doctor).
I am a bit disillusioned, perhaps because of the
fatigue, but it’s clear that the Indian
doesn’t like me. While the others have got
smoothly through the same area, I have had nothing
but north south pressure ridges, with crossed
seas which make the boat and my pilots suffer.
I am beginning to ration my food as I have only
brought along 110 days of food and if I don’t
lengthen my stride in the Pacific Ocean, I am
not going to have enough.”
Nick Moloney (Skandia): “Breeze has dropped
off a lot, but it’s not that bad, we are
still moving. It will get lighter and lighter
until I fall out of the breeze...It was great
to cross the Dateline, puts you in the right frame
of mind to finish. Before that you really feel
like you are half way around the world and going
backwards. Now, I feel I am just get closer and
closer. Awesome to have the [Global Challenge]
fleet out here – I have company from a safety
point of view. It’s a great race and I have
great admiration for the crews and Challenge Business”.
Sébastien Josse (VMI): “The depression
is coming. I can feel it. The barometer is dropping
rapidly and I already have 35 knots. The seas
are better organised than the Indian which is
rather good news. The depression will pass over
us. I then hope to be able to hold onto it until
the Horn. You rest in a different way in the storm.
I am in boots and foulies. I doze at the chart
table, ready to pull out my guns. Call me «
Joss Randall » ! I am really keen to leave
the Southern Ocean. The permanent surveillance
of the horizon and the radar, the threat of icebergs,
the stress and the poor sleep… but that’s
how it goes. It’s all part of a Round the
World. I hope to pass Cape Horn at around 6 January.
I hope to see it this time around…”
Bruce Schwab (Ocean Planet): “I feel pretty
good. The weather is a bit tricky but the sea
isn’t rough anymore, it’s medium now.
I headed north last night as I am just in front
of a ridge of high pressure, which is heading
east. I was on a starboard gybe getting sucked
in towards the system last night, I then went
onto a port gybe trying to get north-east. The
good news is that I am still “just”
ahead and have still got wind and might make it!
It’s going to be very close. I’m lucky,
I think the system has been moving slower than
the models forecast. I’m working hard making
numerous sail changes. Tomorrow I think I’ll
have upwind and hope that I will be able to pass
south of New Zealand rather than heading straight
at it. It is stressful sailing but you combat
that by retaining a sense of humour and having
a good attitude. You can have different emotions
at the same time and it’s clear that in
a big storm when you are fearful, you need to
have a sense of humour too. I also play my guitar
when the weather allows, I also tell myself jokes
and talk to myself. At New Year I hope to be past
the southern tip of New Zealand. My biggest wish
is to finish the Vendée Globe safely...and
pay the bills!”
Conrad Humphreys (Hellomoto): “I was pretty
surprised to find out via a text message that
I’d moved up into 11th place yesterday passing
VM Materiaux, I wasn’t expecting that at
all, although I knew Tasmania was well up to the
North. I would need to get 400m further north,
like Nick, to get over the top of the ice. It’s
a real hard one, I haven’t ruled out going
through, but I just know that this race is stressful
enough without putting yourself through it, which
I don’t need to do at this stage in my life.
You’re fighting your competitive urge the
whole time in your own mind. I know I could cut
300m off the corner here. I think it was Shackleton
who said something like it’s better to live
the life of a donkey than that of a courageous
lion. You’re fighting these urges to go
for it, hang on to the sail longer, put your foot
down harder, or sail through the ice, and yet
you know you’ll spend that whole period
living on edge, not sleeping, staying up on deck
but not seeing anything. I probably don’t
need to feel like that, but there’s a little
naughty feeling in me saying ‘go for it’…I’m
at 52 South and the sea temperature is the biggest
difference when you drop even 1 degree, it was
hovering about 8 - 9 degrees yesterday but today
it just dropped to 6 degrees, and the air is noticeably
chillier, but we’re still in the NW breeze
so it’s relatively okay.”
Source : Vendée Globe 2004
www.vendeeglobe.org
