Vendée Globe

The long turn to the left seems to have begun… Seb Josse (BT) and Loick Peyron (Gitana Eighty) have resumed control of the fleet in positions 1-2 at this evening’s position updates (GMT 1900hrs). The leading duo are pointing firmly south-east, as the fleet delve deeper into the St Helena high. Next stop: the Atlantic gate at 41 degrees.

In their tracks is ninth-placed Mike Golding (Ecover, GBR), some 55 miles behind the front-runner, and looking set to emulate their line towards the Cape. Several skippers in this morning’s radio broadcasts spoke of how both the European and American weather modeling software was currently agreed on the same forecast for the next 24 hours — if all the information is pointing at one smooth route through the high, then we can expect to see the skippers fighting hard to position themselves in the optimum spot.
Amidst the remainder of the leading group the reshuffle continues, Jean Le Cam has dropped to fourth on the east, whilst the mid-field of the leading group seem to be caught in St Helena’s grip: Brit Air (Armel Le Cleac’h, 5th) looks to have tacked rapidly twice, PRB (Vincent Riou, 7th) has also had to put in a quick dog-leg, and at the time of the latest update Jean-Pierre Dick (Paprec Virbac 2, 8th) is pointing south-west.
So, the skippers have to decide — is there just one correct answer, or is chance now part of the equation? Can you plot your way through the St Helena High, or is staying on deck, responding to every shift, and whispering up a little prayer to the wind gods a better ploy? Do you hold your faith in luck, or judgement? Some skippers have already staked their bets: Le Cam in the east will be hoping for a little good fortune, or will those in the west avoid the worst of St Helena’s whims? Tenth-placed Safran is now further south than Le Cam in fourth, with Temenos (Domique Wavre, SUI), Thompson (Bahrain Team Pindar, GBR) and Foncia (Michel Desjoyeaux) all racking up on the left of the course.
Dominque Wavre wrote today: “The American and European files are fairly similar. The zone of high pressure is shifting eastwards and nobody is likely to come to a standstill for a long period of time. The frontrunners should be slowed a little more than us, but things aren’t likely to come to a complete halt. With my slight westerly separation I hope I’m not going to lose too much time. It’ll all depend on how the zone of high pressure moves, so naturally there is a slightly random aspect to proceedings.”
Elsewhere in the fleet, few of the chasing pack have gained or lost more than a mile or two on the leading bunch since the last sched. But Cheminées Poujoulat has advanced one position, as Bernard Stamm (SUI) overhauls Rich Wilson (USA) to move up to 20st position – his second place gain of 24 hours.

 

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