Vendée Globe

Leaving the tricky Cape VerdeIslands astern, it appears to be business as usual for Loïck Peyron on Gitana Eighty as he emerges back at the top of the Vendée Globe fleet this afternoon with his margin re-established back at 24.3 miles over Jean Le Cam (VM Matériaux), who lead for a period this morning.

Peyron admitted today that he had endured a long night as he worked through the islands, making sure of avoiding the worst of the wind shadows and disturbances created by the high volcanic island topography. While Jean Le Cam (VM Matériaux) in the east made an early, straight lining through towards the more SE’ly group of islands, he has lost ground since, also gibing, now working back to the west on a slower, more downwind angle. Peyron admitted:

 "It was a tough old night with a lot of hard work and it's not over yet. I had to gybe a few times and that's never easy on these big boats. In fact I didn't get to sleep in spite of the dark, as the wind strengthened, then fell away completely and between the islands, it was a slalom. I'm now under spinnaker with 12-14 knots of wind. It's still very irregular, as the islands aren't really that far off.  And we're certainly not moving towards a better world.  The weather charts are not that clear for the route through the Doldrums. Choices are going to have to be made. And choosing means giving up something." Peyron told today’s radio broadcast.

 
After a gain to the west through the early part of the day by a group lead by Jean-Pierre Dick (Paprec), including 2004 Vendée Globe winner Vincent Riou (PRB), and Armel Le Cléac’h (Brit Air) their advance has stabilized for just now, but Le Cam said today that he feared the west may play out better.

 Mike Golding’s passage through the islands required a last minute change of strategy due to a wind shift but he has consolidated his gains since leaving the islands and is up to seventh place, his best so far on this his third Vendée Globe. He is now 109 miles behind leader Peyron as the leaders plan their strategy for the next obstacle, the Doldrums.

 Michel Desjoyeaux continues to work his way up through the fleet. Foncia gained two places today and now lies 19th.


Unfortunately this afternoon’s advance by Desjoyeaux negates one of the two places gain by Rich Wilson, USA. After jumping to 19th he was passed by the 2001 winner this afternoon and now Great American III lies 20th .

 
Mike Golding, GBR, Ecover 3: “ I have not slept very much. I was sailing very hot angles with the gennaker, and I was trying to ascertain the various heights of various islands on the internet, so that took me a while. I was trying to work out which ones were the low ones, which ones were the ones with low beaches, which ones had cliffs and so on, on tourist web sites and also seeing where the best hotels are!”

 
Jean Le Cam, (VM Materiaux): I've got away from the islands, so that's something.  It wasn't that much of a problem, but there were three or four hours of very light winds.  Now all that is behind us and we're sailing along smoothly. I am dripping with sweat. The heat is absolutely terrible.  I've taken off my t-shirt.  I think I'm going to be losing quite a bit of weight. But I mustn't complain, as a few days from now, we'll be saying it's too cold. And we have some fine sailing conditions for the moment.  This morning at dawn off the Island of Maio, it was magnificent.
 

Vincent Riou, (PRB): "I can see Paprec upwind ahead of me; it's great to be sailing like that together, as it's very motivating. As far as the three leading boats are concerned, I'm not expecting a miracle in the next few hours. The fleet will be tackling the Doldrums fairly closely bunched up. The boats may get squeezed up, but the first one in will be the first one out." 
 

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