Vendée Globe

Just over 500 miles from the finish today Bruce Schwab is hoping to become the first American skipper to complete the Vendée Globe. Given the latest weather information, Bruce sees his most likely ETA to be late Thursday or Friday of this week. Since tacking yesterday he is less than 300 miles to the West of Cape Finisterre, intending to refine his trajectory on Les Sables d’Olonne this afternoon in accordance with the latest grib files. After over 106 days of solo racing a common theme aboard all five boats left racing is the desire to get to the finish. Tail-ender of the fleet, Karen Leibovici, crossed the equator early this morning, so they are all now on the home straight.

Currently battling his way through some rather lumpy conditions a
rather tired Bruce Schwab is trying to make life onboard Ocean Planet
as comfortable as possible, masking out the groaning sounds of the keel
as it slams upwind with music, DVD’s and the heating on high.
Conditions for sleeping are far from ideal and yet as he closes in on
Cape Finisterre, the maritime traffic is increasing, and a virtually
permanent lookout is imperative.

“Things are ok here. It’s a
little rough but I’m making good progress this morning. I’m pretty
close to the direct course, leaning a bit towards Cape Finisterre. I’m
waiting for more weather information and then I’ll refine my trajectory
a little. I saw two ships last night. When it’s rough I imagine it must
be very difficult to see a little sail boat but I haven’t had any
problems. I simply call them up on the VHF and have a chat. It’s always
worst by Cape Finisterre – it’s like a highway there. It’s good to have
a little contact but I’d really like to be closer to the finish. I’ll
have to be careful to make sure I take short 20 minute naps as I know I
have particular problems staying awake between 2 and 5 in the morning.
It’s much colder and I’m making the most of my fuel to put the heating
on. I haven’t done that since the Southern Ocean.”

Casting his
eye over the weather situation for the coming days, the American
skipper isn’t terribly optimistic. “I hope the wind will hold as long
as possible. It’s fine now but it looks like I’m going to get NE’lies
in the Bay of Biscay. That’s coming right from Les Sables which means
I’ll be able to smell it right from Cape Finisterre! The boat’s in
pretty good shape down below. If the wind holds I can give an ETA of
Wednesday but I’m likely to be upwind with a much worse VMG so I think
realistically it’s going to be late Thursday or Friday. I know the race
is almost over but the finish feels such a long way away!”

Over
1250 miles behind Bruce, Benoît Parnaudeau (Max Havelaar Best Western)
from La Rochelle is also feeling the draw of the finish as he glides
past Mauritania at a steady 10.2 knot average. His main focus right now
is the arrival of some depressions from the West that may at last
disrupt the anticyclone that has been sprawling across Western Europe
for several days. Already hooked onto the Southern extremity of the
anticyclone Benoît has really taken off today, Anne Liardet (Roxy)
eager to get into the same system just over 400 miles behind. The duo
are trying to position themselves in relation to a small front before
hitting a favourable SSE’ly wind for a climb up to the Azores on a due
N’ly course.

Just under 650 miles behind Raphaël Dinelli (Akena
Verandas) finally seems to have escaped the torments of the doldrums,
delighted to have “rediscovered the pleasures of sailing again”. He is
sailing in a trade wind which is very irregular and hence light. A
little over 320 miles south of him Karen Leibovici (Benefic) crossed
the equator and early this morning, all the remaining competitors in
this Vendée Globe now safely back in the Northern hemisphere. On
Karen’s current agenda is the tackling of a vast zone of light winds
with the passage of active squalls in the doldrums providing her with
some much needed and long awaited rainwater.
Author Kate Jennings

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