Vendée Globe

Mich Desjoyeaux confirmed this morning that he thinks he is already emerging into the NE’ly trades.

He is making 10.3 knots this morning much the same speed as Roland Jourdain, but the second placed skipper has yet to be slowed down by the Doldrums. For Desjoyeaux the trades do look to be quite well established at the moment and so he should be off…again.  

Jourdain has gained 165 miles back since Sunday night and is now 336.1 miles behind Desjoyeaux. Armel Le Cléach is making 9.2 knots in third, he is into the trades and doing fine, about 691 miles behind Bilou.

Marc Guillemot is up to fourth –was 247 miles behind when Sam Davies when the British skipper hit the buffers and slowed. It is iportant to note that Sam’s passage to the west, the route that Safran managed to take, was barred by no wind at all, and so she has been forced to stay right, to the east. Davies is averaging 5.1 knots between the rankings and over 5.9 knots this morning. She is going to have to remain patient.

The trio are starting to slow, Brain Thompson is just making 14.2 knots, Dee Caffari 13,3 and Arnaud Boissières also13.3. Dee is 75 miles behind Brian, while Thompson explained that they have been in different bands of breeze and only last night did he get the same wind Dee has had, with the breeze coming forward to the beam.

On the Presidential Inauguration Day, Rich Wilson is about 1440 miles from Cape Horn, in 35 knot winds, while Norbert Sedlacek and Rapahel Dinelli have now been lifted enough by the backing wind to allow them to head up to catch the SW Pacific security gate, after paralleling it for more than 24 hours.

Here’s the round up of what the French speaking skippers revealed today:

Michel Desjoyeaux (Foncia):  After the calms yesterday, now I’m on the roller-coaster ride.  Still very hot.  According to his photos last squall this morning was final one in the Doldrums, but hasn’t yet found the trade winds.  However, the seas are quite rough, so thinks he must be getting close and that the transition zone isn’t very wide. 4 days of upwind sailing ahead.  Not considering remaining cautious, but has raised his daggerboard by 30 cm and maybe he would be fighting harder if challenger was closer.  At my current speed I am going faster than Bilou over 4 hours, so he is still suffering irregular winds and then he will face the Doldrums.  Distance should not be narrowed, so not worried about Bilou.  A comfortable lead to the Azores anyway.  Mustn’t do anything silly.  Whatever he says people will say either he’s over-confident or never happy.  Will be talking the Doldrums situation over with the weather expert, Jean-Yves Bernot at the finish, as unusually low down and unusually wide. Was worried that it may have been wider, but picked up wind in the night before the Equator.

Roland Jourdain (Veolia Environnement): I can’t complain.  It’s warm and sunny. Good sailing conditions with calm seas and fairly regular breeze. Mich has already got through the Doldrums and I haven’t even been slowed down yet.  I’m hoping not to do worse than him.  There is a bit of wind according to the charts.  With the Quikscat photos and satellite data we can see the cloud formations and plan a way through.  It’s good to have won back some miles and it would be nice not to be slowed for too long in the Doldrums.  Last year in the Barcelona they started to go down with us.  In theory they will move up, but after we get through. We Bretons are not equatorial, so it’s a bit hot for us during the day. At dawn, we’re sweating already. Early in the morning around here there are squalls, so at least there’s a bit of a breeze. We need to drink a lot and it’s T-shirt or sun-cream, when we go outside.  It gets to be a bit of a routine. Sometimes it would be nice to stop and visit things rather than keep sailing. There are so many beautiful places to see.

Arnaud Boissières (Akena Vérandas): Noticeable rise in temperature. Less wind than yesterday but swell remains with 3-4m waves on the beam.  Determined to show what he can do against the two English boats – doesn’t want it to be Waterloo all over again.  However, his boat being much older is handicapped in these conditions. Moving to warmer climes and back to waters he knows better. Missing his oysters from Arcachon.

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