Vendée Globe

In the lead for nine days now, Mich’ Desj’ (Foncia) is suffering from his decision to stay south of his nearest rival, Roland Jourdain.

The leader is currently heading north eastwards and having to sail high to pass the Ice Gate, which is affecting his speed. In the latest rankings, he was only managing to sail at 6.5 knots as opposed to the 16.5 knots achieved by Roland Jourdain, who is now only 27 miles behind the leader.  At this pace, Jourdain could grab the lead this evening, a position he has not been in since two days after the start.

In the Western Pacific, the suspense is building again between the two leaders. Behind, the two chasers are also benefiting from this situation.  Vincent Riou, now in fifth place 363 miles from the leader, has regained  more than 170 miles in three days.

Christmas Day afternoon is invariably the time for the stereotypical Englishman to be trying his new tools, relaxing and perhaps enjoying a late afternoon dose. In essence Brian Thompson is no different, deep in the Southern Ocean, but after his efforts over Christmas Eve and this morning, he deserves all the rest he can get. No sooner had he put the power tools away after spending the best part of two days and two nights in the fore-peak of Bahrain Team Pindar making a serious lamination repair just before the arrival of 50-55 knots of wind, than the British soloist is forced to sail with no mainsail for the best part of 30 hours, after halyard issues and the lazy jack –which contains the mainsail when it is being hoisted or lowered – snapped. Thompson told the live radio interview this Christmas morning that he has climbed 25 feet (8m) up the mast twice since Christmas eve, successful at the second attempt. While he was up the mast he spotted the bright yellow hull of Dee Caffari’s Aviva, arriving on the horizon. Caffari, who has sailed consistently over recent days, has just taken over 10^th place. She may have passed him but at least she did not force any unseemly Christmas knitwear on him, and Thompson will fight back when his strength is recovered.

Through the fleet there has been some little respite for gifts, calls to the nearest and dearest, and the chance to open some presents. Books, DVD’s and CD’s were high on the list of practical gifts. Norbert Sedlacek, AUT, has been drowning out the sound of the high winds with some typical Austrian and German music. Sam Davies, GBR, (Roxy) has her Open 60 festooned seemingly with more decorations than the entire city of Paris and has had Barbie’s partner Surfer Ken and a small plastic naked man, as well as a typical haul of Santa socks and pants, among her haul of Christmas presents.

Marc Guillemot (Safran), now in ninth place after coming to the assistance of  Yann Eliès,  confirmed today that he would be heading for Auckland Island, to the south of New Zealand to repair his traveller track. Raphaël Dinelli (Fondation Océan Vital), currently 17th, spent the first fortnight of the race preparing his boat. However, he has had to keep his toolbox open.  Knocked down last night in winds of excess of 60 knots (Force 11), his boat suffered more problems, including damage to his lazy jacks. Steve White (Toe in the Water), 13th, is suffering from damage to his gooseneck fitting.  As for Jean-Pierre Dick (Paprec-Virbac 2), he has moved on to the second stage of repairs to his starboard rudder after hitting a UFO.

Christmas Rapping with the Vendée Globe skippers:

Sam Davies, GBR, (Roxy): I am not going quickly enough because I have a low pressure system which seems to be attached to Roxy by elastic and it is slowing us and giving us headwinds, it is not the big Southern Ocean surfs I am looking for, but hopefully in the next 24 hours I will have escaped its clutches.

I have had a mixture of a French and an English Christmas because in France they celebrate Christmas Eve on the 24th and so I said I was going to have my Christmas dinner and my little bottle of red wine then, and then open my presents in the morning. I missed my Christmas Dinner because it was too bumpy but I managed the red wine.

Norbert Sedlacek, AUT, (Nauticsport-Kapsch): The last few hours have been quite hairy. We had a strong winds situation with squalls, up to more 40 knots in the squalls and big surf. I had eight and a half hours standing behind the wheel and steering by myself, but now it is a bit more relaxed the barometer is coming up again, and there should not be more than 25-30 knots for th next 1,2-3 days. But as far as the start of the day, it was a very sportif  Christmas Day.

I used the time yesterday to open my presents, to make myself a nice meal and then to have some sleep to 22h UTC and then steer the boat to make sure than nothing gets broken. I only have the cover on the traveller rope to fix, that is all. I am just a little bit tired now. And so I will have a sleep and relax now .

I had some Turkey from a can, some green beans and a lot of sweets, so it was a great, great meal. I had a small bottle of prosecco (Italian sparkling white wine) and I drank it by myself. I did not offer any to Neptune because I explained that because he had sent me such bad weather that I would be drinking it by myself.

Brian Thompson, GBR, (Bahrain Team Pindar): This is definitely the hardest Christmas I have had. Probably about 30 hours I had no main. Taking it down was, in itself, a battle. But unfortunately the leeward lazy jack broke and so because it was windy all night, we just kept going. In the morning I attempted to go up the rig, to put a new lazy jack in but did not manage it because it was very, very bumpy and very difficult, very exhausting. And so I came down, rested a little bit, got my strength back and in the afternoon the wind had died down a little bit and I managed to get up and do it. I had played a little bit with the mast climbing equipment, and now it is much more efficient and safer now.

So now I have the main up and the lazyjack back on, and unbelievably as I was working on the lazy-jack, because I had to splice in the new system up there, Aviva appeared on my port side. I had a very nice chat with Dee on the VHF and I will be talking with her tonight to make sure we don’t run into each other because we were only a mile apart. I was still on four reefs at that point. Now I have taken out more sail, but tonight I won’t push too hard, I need to get some rest. But it is Christmas time in England now and so I will call in time and join in the festivities.

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