Vendée Globe

If we say that it blows hot and cold on the fleet in the Vendée Globe, we are not simply using a sporting metaphor. From this weekend, our round the world sailors, although in spring in the southern hemisphere, will be experiencing a dramatic decline in the temperature.
 

"The seasons seem to have disappeared" is an expression we often hear when people are talking about exceptional weather conditions, but it applies perfectly to the Vendée Globe. It is not that the seasons have disappeared from the route for the round the world sailors, but their cycle is completely disturbed as they move up and down the latitudes.  Having set sail from Les Sables d’Olonne in the rigours of autumn, with their woolly hats pulled down over their heads and wrapped up in their warm underwear, ten days later they were scampering around the deck in their birthday suit, suffering the stifling heat inside their carbon cocoons.  Once out of the torrid equatorial interlude, they found themselves in the spring and soon it will be summer.  In the southern hemisphere, the seasons are the opposite of ours, so that 21st December in the antipodes marks the summer solstice.

Piling on and peeling back the layers
However, at sea, it is not the season that determines what will be worn. The round the world sailor  will be forced to change clothes and style as often as a footballer's wife looking at her wardrobe.  Not finding any other solution, they start to pile on the clothes as the thermometer falls and peel back the layers, as soon as the mercury rises.
Already, in the warm SE'ly trade winds that have been with them for 7 days, the sailors have put back on their fleeces and lightweight foulies.  In these upwind conditions, this is the gear that is necessary, not only to protect themselves from the tons of water crashing over the deck, but also to ward off the wind chill factor.  With a 15-knot wind coming straight at them, the monohulls create an apparent wind close to 25 knots, leading to a clear cooling effect. It may have been twenty degrees in the cockpits, the speed of the boats transforms these pleasant sailing conditions into rather chilly conditions.

The southern summer is rather wintry
Unfortunately for them, the temperatures will continue to fall, as they move south, as the only aspect of the southern summer that is warm is its name. This weekend, as they deal with the disturbed  flow which affects the deep south, they will be losing almost ten degrees in comparison to the tropical weather. Down below the forties, the average temperature at this time of year varies between 5 and 12 degrees.  We know that in 30 km/h winds (16 knots), a temperature of five degrees is the equivalent to zero degrees and zero minus six degrees!  In ten days or so, the pictures of the sailors with their shirts off enjoying themselves in the sunshine will be replaced by those showing funny astronauts, swathed in clothes, shivering in front of their chart table.

Roland Jourdain, who spent last winter in the cold climes of the deep south (during the Barcelona World Race) knows what to expect: «For the moment, it's fine.  We're wearing a T-shirt and shorts. But when we are dressed in four fleeces and a double layer of foulies, we'll see how the racing goes then!»
Once they have rounded The Horn (early in January), they will begin the process in the opposite direction taking them back to the equatorial heat, before returning to the European winter. You can bet that after three months at sea and going through almost four seasons, some will be forced to utter those immortal words: «I haven't anything left to wear!»

Camille El Beze

 

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