Vendée Globe

On 1st February 1990, the boat 36-15 Met was sailing in the Pacific at 62 degrees south, less than five degrees from the Polar circle*. Her skipper Jean-Luc Van den Heede, then in second place, 284 miles from the leader Titouan Lamazou, had climbed his way back in the Southern ocean. Sailing further south than his rivals, VDH decided to go one step further by moving a bit closer to Antarctica in order to cut the distance he had to cover and passing inside the skipper of Ecureuil d’Aquitaine II sailing further north.
 

Looking beyond the mere prospects in terms of the race, the former teacher from Lorient wanted also to consider the drifting ice. Three years earlier, as he was rounding Cape Horn on his previous boat in the BOC Challenge, he talked about his frustrations in his log: «I shall not be seeing any icebergs, I'm sorry to say, I would have liked to have seen at least one.» Three years later, he was attempting just that off Cape Colbeck at the 159th parallel, marking the limit of the Ross Sea, a huge inlet in the Antarctic continent. The Ross Sea is a real ice factory. VDH is certainly not going to be disappointed!

"The world at his wrist"
In his book, which was published by Neptune/Filipacchi, the solo sailor wrote about his first encounter: «Not having any radar, I kept an eye on my temperature gauge and I noticed the water had gone from 7 to 2 degrees. Now was the time to pay attention. And in fact out on deck carrying out manoeuvres, I noticed a lot of ice cubes around the boat. Then 300m to my port side, a block measuring 3 or 4 m3 could be seen on the swell. It was my first growler…»
Half an hour later, a halo, a gigantic 400m long halo measuring 30m in height, caught his attention. It was his first iceberg. VDH was delighted. But as the boat made headway, more icebergs could be seen on the horizon: "There is a real ice circle forming around me. It feels like I'm heading into a cul de sac. What if there is no way out? What if I was simply in a bay in the pack ice. Suddenly I realised I would have to turn around by heading upwind into heavy seas to try to find a way out. I get the feeling I am caught in a trap."

White mountains
A little bit later, Jean-Luc caught sight of a way out of this mound of ice and growlers blocking his way on the surface of the water. Some blocks of ice hit the aluminium hull, but she got through! Wisely, he decided to head north to spend the night -fortunately short in these latitudes - at the helm. At daybreak, the white mountains were back and throughout the day there was to be a procession of ice. VDH was amazed by this majestic sight of these ephemeral ice sculptures. He grew more and more courageous and approached them to admire their beauty. He spent a second night at the helm keeping watch. As he progressed, he got back on track with Ecureuil d’Aquitaine II. Now he has a pilot vessel to guide him. On the third day of this icy initiation, VDH feeling extremely tired dozed off. The next iceberg signalled by Titouan was 15 miles ahead. «I've given up worrying about the growlers, and now I'm taking advantage to sleep for an hour and a half, feet forwards so my head doesn't get banged if there is a collision. With her five watertight compartments, my aluminium boat is solid. I'm taking a bit of a risk, as I don't think I can hold out for much longer.» When he awoke, the iceberg was there downwind of his boat, and it looked much rounder than the previous ones. "After the Alps, this is the Massif Central," joked the sailor. The good news that evening was that Titouan had not seen any icebergs. Things were looking up. A week later, VDH would round the Horn, only 22 hours after Lamazou, this time with no regrets and maybe with a touch of relief… Even if he had not gone as far south as he had wanted.

* We should add that at the time there were no gates in the Vendée Globe course in the Southern Ocean

Patrice Carpentier
 

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