Vendée Globe

“I have a cargo ship that came up behind me at 0100 GMT this morning and since then it has been on the same course as me less than a mile to starboard. It is delaying my escape from the shipping lane, which is an additional stress. There has been quite a lot of shipping overnight, including a big Spanish fishing boat.” Added to a torturous weather forecast Raphaël Dinelli (Akena Verandas), like Karen Leibovici (Benefic), are being forced to keep up a virtually permanent look out for shipping, with numerous cargo ships currently adopting the course taken by these last two competitors in this Vendée Globe as they make towards the finish. Raphaël is tacking upwind off the Vendée coast, right in line with the hectic Ouessant-Cape Finisterre highway. Karen is about to start the same traffic dodging, 250 miles to the SW of Raphaël. Our two sailors are pushing their physical and mental limits to the full, digging deep for the extra energy needed to make headway in the varying wind strengths. Karen still has a strong wind while Raphaël is in the opposite situation, both trying to preserve their boats as they suffer increasingly from over 4 months at sea.

Raphaël Dinelli continues to ´weave along´ towards the finish according to his own expression. One minute he´s on a tack towards Spain the next towards the tip of Britain...the sea subsiding, the wind easing, but still very shifty both in strength and direction. Dinelli is having a constant struggle on deck to find the right sails and the right trim.  Despite his exhaustion he is doing everything he can to make Les Sables d´Olonne this weekend, Saturday still a possibility. An initial NE´ly wind shift this evening should be a great help to him, before he finishes off in a small NW´ly air flow generated by the long awaited collapse of the ridge of high pressure.

450 miles from the finish, Karen Leibovici is also praying that the depression that has lead her to the Western tip of Spain today, hustles the sleeping high pressure over the Bay of Biscay and opens a way to the Vendée for her with a minimum of tacks. The fatigue, or rather the exhaustion, is getting the better of her. The list of technical problems continues to extend out and she is becoming desperate to make easting and bring an end to her ordeal as quickly as possible. Deprived of power, Karen is continuing to helm through the still strong 35 to 40 knot wind and very
steep seas, on the look out for shipping and, most of all, a possible conclusion to her round the world on Sunday.
Translation Kate Jennings

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