Vendée Globe

After a perfect night’s sailing the Vendée Globe solo skippers are on the train south, pushed by favourable 15-18 knots N’ly winds and making around 12 knots heading towards the islands of Maderia.

For enduring the storm the reward of brisk sailing under maximum downwind sail area sent by steady winds from the north, there is the chance to catch up on rest and effect any repairs required

Jean Pierre Dick (Paprec-Virbac 2) has the lead again overnight, taking a slightly more offshore route than Seb Josse (BT) who is the most easterly of the breakaway group of six which maintains a distance of about 30 miles on the chasing pack.

This morning Josse was about 195 miles NWW of Lisbon, while fifth placed Armel Le Cléac’h (Brit Air) is the most offshore, about 40 miles further west.

Under perfect moonlit conditions Roland Jourdain (Veolia Environnement) had to make a stop of about half an hour, around 0200hrs GMT, to remove an obstruction from his keel.

There is still only 15 miles between the leader and sixth placed Vincent Riou (PRB).

Yannick Bestaven (Aquarelle.com) confirmed last night that he has officially retired from the race.

Eighth last night Mike Golding (Ecover 3) lies 11^th  this morning, 3.9 miles behind Marc Guillemot (Safran), while Dee Caffari (AVIVA) in 12^th has made a progressive gain on 13^th placed Sam Davies (ROXY), Brian Thompson (Bahrain Team Pindar) is still 14^th.

Jonny Malbon (Artemis), in 19^th,  reported this morning:

“ All good on board. Settling into a routine now and hope to start catching some miles back up.  A very difficult few days, but the boat is in good shape.  I have some damage to my traveller system that I will fix today. I will try and get some rest as well.”

Alex Thomson with the damaged Hugo Boss arrived back outside Les Sables d’Olonne at around 0500hrs GMT, awaiting the tide to enter the port to lift the boat out and make an assessment of the crack in his hull side.

Derek Hatfield (Algimouss Spirit of Canada) is working on his electrical repairs but is having to lift the rig from his boat to repair his mast track. Hatfield’s biggest concern at the moment is budget, a statement from his team said this morning.

Bernard Stamm (Cheminées Poujoulat) has his bowsprit repaired now and the mast only  needs stepping, which should enable the Swiss sailor to set off again this evening (Wednesday).  For Jean-Baptiste Dejeanty (Maisonneuve) who arrived back in port during the night, the pit stop could well take a little longer than expected. The French sailor has major structural problems to deal with and an inspection is set to be carried out this morning, while Marc Thiercelin (DCNS) is now docked in La Coruna in Spain.

On arrival in Les Sables d’Olonne this morning Dejeanty recalled what had happened:

“It was as the front was going over in the middle of a squall.  I had just changed tack and was taking advantage of the wind dropping off to stack inside the boat. A wave that was more violent than the others lifted up the boat. It felt a bit like floating in space. The boat came crashing down.  I think she came down on two big waves, one at the bow and one astern.  The keel between the two made  a loud cracking sound. It was like a gun going off inside the boat. My ears were ringing.  On the way back, the water was halfway up to my knees inside, but fortunately the pumps worked perfectly.  Structurally inside, nothing has changed.  I don't really understand. I have sailed 25,000 miles with the boat and have never seen that.  It was just bad luck and that's what I find hard to take. I had already experienced heavy seas like that before on several occasions. Maybe the only difference was the boat was loaded in Vendée Globe mode, meaning the strains were that much higher.  I think the boat has done well given the violence of the impact.  Personally I took a while to recover. We'll see what we can do. An engineer is on his way and an expert should be here later today to look at the damage more closely.  With the team we'll discuss whether to set out again or not.”

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