Vendée Globe

One final sting in the tail from the Pacific is being dealt out as the five leaders rush towards Cape Horn and the exit from five weeks of the Southern Ocean.

According to Richard Silvani of Météo France, the low that will be accompanying the leaders is likely to be the most powerful that they have recorded since they entered the Roaring Forties. 

The leading five skippers who may have been harbouring hopes that they would  be able to profit from a relatively benign final stage of the Pacific and typically long surfs have been disappointed. From Roland Jourdain (Veolia Environnement) to Armel le Cléac’h (Brit Air) the leading group admit that they have been on a boneshaker rather than on the long downhill slide they had hoped for. And so they are unanimous that these final two or three days are about conservation and preservation, inflicting no unnecessary punishment on their boats and equipment which has already been stressed and tested enough. Indeed while the tactical climb back up the Atlantic affords many options, so too having the equipment in shape to exploit every option will be vital.

Although Cape Horn marks the exit door from the Southern Oceans, the race will be far from over at that point. They still have a third of the route, or likely around 30 days to sail and they will have to pass through several complicated weather patterns. Recall that in 2005, Jean Le Cam rounded Cape Horn more than 250 miles ahead of Vincent Riou and Mike Golding, who both went on to lead at different times even before crossing the Equator. In 2001, Michel Desjoyeaux had a lead of more than 600 miles over Ellen MacArthur, who was later right behind him off the coast of Brazil. 

Between the natural obstacle of the Falklands, the sometimes vicious Pampero winds that sweep down from the Patagonian plateau and the calms generated by the St. Helena high, there are plenty of traps in the South Atlantic. Of course, rounding the Horn in the lead offers a clear psychological advantage, but does not guarantee outright victory.

British skipper Sam Davies is up to sixth place now in this, here first Vendée Globe although she admits that she would rather not have profited from the unfortunate withdrawl of Jean-Pierre Dick who lost a rudder when his Paprec-Virbac struck an object, the Nicois skipper spoke with Sam by phone, entrusting sixth place to her as a New Year present.

For the most part Jonny Malbon is the skipper who has not had to seek out his troubles. His mainsail continues to degrade, with the Artemis II skipper confirming today that he has already had to double patch one hole above the fourth reef.  Dee Caffari has reported that she has a similar problem, although not to the same extent as Malbon does.

Meantime Steve White is back on top of his jobs list today on Toe in the Water. His autopilots are doing a good job again as he was working upwind in 25-28 knots of breeze today, looking for a window in the weather to complete the repairs to his goose-neck.

Leader, Michel Desjoyeaux (Foncia): "It was daylight about two hours ago.  The sea is fairly calm and the wind reasonable around 25-30 knots. The sea has been in the right direction since I gybed in the night. The wind is going to be getting up, but it's not going to be violent.  This wind will be taking us all the way to Cape Horn.  The good news is that we won't have to go down into the ice.  It's more a question of wanting to be there now rather than fearing the Horn, even if I know it can be a tricky zone. When you round it, it's a sort of release.  You are out of the southern seas and back in the Atlantic.  Each time I've been there, I've had good conditions.  After the Horn, there will be a month of sailing. The tactics for now are to remain cautious and not get too excited.  We must not forget that the voyage back up from the Horn  until we pass the St Helena high is no easy matter."

Fourth, Armel Le Cléac'h (Brit Air): “I had a bit of a problem in the night.  The leeward rudder hit something and kicked up; so I ended up being knocked down. In theory, everything is back in place.  I've just finished tidying up.  The boat bore away, with the keel leeward and the boat stacked on the wrong side, so we went over.  It takes a bit of acrobatics to get the boat back upright. The main thing is I didn't break anything, but I'm going to have to wait for the wind to check that everything is working properly. The water was at 10°, so I don't think it could have been a growler.  It took me three-quarters of an hour to get the boat back up.  It was a bit tricky.  Our rudders kick up to stop them from breaking, but the drawback is that when it's windy and the sea is rough and you're not near the helm, it gets hairy."

11^th, Steve White, GBR, Toe in the Water “I spoke to someone from B&G (suppliers) on New Year’s Day. We have to wait until it is really, really calm and do a proper calibration. Basically what we did trying to do it in a big swell was upset the whole thing, so when it’s calm I’ll give it a go and then it should be fine. But it was great to hear it from the ‘horse’s mouth’ as it were, what the problem is. At least we are going in a straight line, reliably. I have the generator lashed down again and have done most of the gooseneck repair and so I am just waiting for it not to be pouring water across the deck, all of the day. At the moment we are bouncing upwind in 25-28 knots of wind.”

“I have been close to Campbell Island, passing within about five miles of it, a pretty spectacular, part of the lip of a volcano sticking up, 500 metres above the sea, literally coming straight out the sea. There were millions of albatross – well not ‘millions, but I counted 30.”

“ It is good to be in the western hemisphere and for the numbers to be counting down from 180, it makes you feel like you heading home properly. It is a long, long way we have come, there is a long, long way to go. It is another little milestone to tick off, like the Equator and of course the next one is the Horn, and so I am just happy to be ticking them off my little milestones.”

On solitude and the appeal of two handed racing?

“I don’t get lonely like that, I never have, but the just sometimes you see stuff which is difficult or impossible to describe over the phone, or in the written word and so sometimes it is not so much that you miss people, just sometimes not having someone there to share the special moments, which happen with a reasonably regularity. And just having someone to describe stuff and discuss stuff with, who better to do that with than your wife?”

12^th Jonny Malbon, GBR, (Artemis II): “I am not too bad, but pretty tired a little bit despondent. It is just the ongoing battle with the mainsail. Yesterday I dropped it down to four reefs to patch a small hole to try and pre-empt any further damage, when I was down below for about 20 minutes cutting some Kevlar, with the reef tucked in and safe, when I came back on deck there was a vertical tear about a metre long, which is really bad news because it is the taffeta which is ripped and that is really bad news because that is pretty much the only thing which holding the sail together when it is up. I managed to get a big patch on it and then another patch on the patch, and then a few hours I will be gybing, and so then I will be able to do the same on the port side, which is the really badly damaged side. At the moment I am ticking along at 9-12 knots and it is not really very fast, and it is really much fun. It’s been a difficult day. We have 25-35 knots and a really horrible cross sea, and hopefully it will improve in about four hours when I gybe and hopefully get out of this place.”

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