Vendée Globe

All things being equal, nothing untoward happening and wind in the right direction Michel Desjoyeaux is expected to cross the finish line off Les Sables d’Olonne on Sunday morning.

After a brisk morning in favourable winds of 25 knots from the SW, Desjoyeaux was due to take one last test from the Atlantic as he passes Cape Finisterre, back across the threshold to the Bay of Biscay, an area which proved the graveyard for the hopes of no fewer than four Vendée Globe entrants less than 12 weeks ago when this great adventure started.

Desjoyeaux missed out on the very worst of the storm off Cape Finisterre on his outward trip. He made his U-turn around 0820hrs on the morning of the 10^th November, but is not getting back easily.

He is expected to be encountering one final Atlantic low pressure system later today, 45-50 knots in the gusts according to Meteo France.

Thereafter he is expected to have a slow-down through Saturday with a small high pressure ridge to cross in the Bay of Biscay and then favourable winds which should see him secure his historic second Vendée Globe victory on Sunday morning.

Over 1000 miles behind now and some 440 miles to the Azores, Roland Jourdain made a simple, clear mission statement today on the radio broadcast live from Les Sables d’Olonne.

“ My goal is to return to Les Sables d’Olonne, but I want to save my skin.” Jourdain said this morning. He has been making just over 8 knots this afternoon despite having no obvious signs of a keel left on Veolia Environnement.

Sailing fully ballasted he has had discussions with his support teams as to what the theoretical limits are of the boat in its current state. He said today that he had dived to check the keel after the impact with a sea mammal, which required him to repair, and saw some damage to the laminate.

Yesterday he sailed with 30 knots and had three reefs in the mainsail and he reported today that he could handle Veolia Environnement with care, but was would be most exposed with the wind and seas on the beam. He plans to stop in Sao Miguel.

Apart from straightforward mechanical failure, several competitors in this Vendée Globe – including some of the favourites – fell prey to impacts with floating objects. That is believed to have been the case for Alex Thomson (Hugo Boss), certainly the case for Jonny Malbon (damaged daggerboard when hit sea mammal), Jean Pierre Dick (two broken rudders) and Jean Le Cam  (keel bulb ripped off leading to the boat capsizing).

Bilou is the most recent victim.  The complete loss of the keel of Veolia Environnement would seem to be the delayed consequence of his collision with a marine mammal on 8th January.  The impact forced Roland Jourdain to transform the interior of his boat into a workshop in order to carry out repairs to his mast bulkhead, which had started to crack.  Already at that time, he was forced to sail with the utmost caution and this meant he lost ground to Desjoyeaux during that period.

Armel Le Cléach’s advance is being slowed by the Azores high pressure system which has kept Brit Air reined in for the moment, but the leading rookie is 354 miles behind Jourdain this evening.

While Sam Davies, GBR, (Roxy) in fourth sympathized with Jourdain’s problems she said today that she will be focusing only on her own race and had given no real thought to whether might have opportunities to advance up the leaderboard. She has emerged from the Doldrums and is 105 miles ahead of Marc Guillemot (Safran) in fifth.

Brian Thompson, GBR, is again being given no breathing space in the Doldrums from Dee Caffari, GBR, who is back as a threat for Bahrain Team Pindar, just 67 miles behind on Aviva. In turn, though, Thompson is now just 142 miles behind Marc Guillemot and had 63 miles to go at 1430hrs this afternoon before passing the Equator.

The Race Village officially opened its doors this morning at 1030hrs (local time).  Today’s radio session took place in the presence of Philippe de Villiers, President of the SEM Vendée, which organises the Vendée Globe, Patricia Brochard, President of partners Sodeb’O and Louis Guédon, the local MP and Mayor of Les Sables d’Olonne, as well as several hundred members of the public.

Michel Desjoyeaux (Foncia):  “We’re still sailing along pleasantly towards that nice little harbour in Vendée.  I’m regularly doing 18, 20, 22 knots, on seas that have calmed off.  The waves are not as steep as those I had yesterday and there’s a line of clouds, but it could be a lot worse to finish the Vendée Globe.  When I returned to Les Sables, it felt like I had won the race, as I got there before anyone else and there were so many people there.  The only thing was I hadn’t been around Antarctica... When I restarted, I thought I could get back in the Top Five by Cape Horn, then we would see what would happen in the climb back up the Atlantic.  Grabbing the lead off Australia is something I still haven’t come to terms with.  I can confirm that I’ll be arriving sometime on Sunday, but I don’t know yet whether I can arrive on the morning tide or whether it will be the evening tide.  In any case, I’m planning to arrive that day so we can all celebrate together!  I’ve got a busy day ahead of me with the media, then tomorrow, I’m off on holiday to take it easy and get some sea air.  Tomorrow I’ll be taking the phone off the hook.  I think this is something you have to do to be able to enjoy the finish.  I don’t think I’ll be getting much sleep on Sunday and probably many others won’t either.  All good things come to an en.  Stepping ashore and getting a beer is going to be good too.  I’m looking forward to a nice weekend.”

“Now that Roland (Jourdain) is experiencing problems, I can reveal some other damage.  I tore two of my three spinnakers, not when I was sailing, but simply when I was hoisting them.  They fell into the water and I had to go backwards to recover the pieces.  Fortunately, it’s not going to affect my performance.  I could have repaired one of them, but it requires a lot of sewing, so I haven’t finished it and I’m going to leave it to the experts.  Out on the bow, there are some stanchions missing on the port side, so the boat doesn’t look too good.  I thought I’d better warn you.” 

Roland Jourdain, (Veolia Environnement): “Well, it seems like I don’t have any keel left, but I haven’t been able to look under the water to see.  When it happened the night before last, I thought the bulb had dropped off.  After my encounter with a sea mammal, I went for a dive, and it looked good, in spite of a few marks from the accident.  But now it looks like it’s the whole keel that has broken.  For the moment, I’m continuing on my way towards the Azores.  My goal is to go all the way to Les Sables d'Olonne. Of course, the first thing is to look after myself and for the moment it’s not too bad. We looked at the theoretical calculations for the boat without a keel, and it looks like the hardest part is going to be from here up to Sao Miguel.  I now have all the ballast tanks full and I’ve stowed away all the sails I don’t need to get the weight as low down as possible.  In theory, on flat calm seas, I can take up to 60 knots of wind, but in heavy seas 40-45 knots in theory.  The worst situation would be wind and seas on the beam, so I would have to change course.  Yesterday I had more than thirty knots of wind, with three reefs in the mainsail and it was OK.  I’d like to thank everyone for their support.  It really means a lot to me.  I’m all alone on my little boat and I can feel the warmth from people on dry land: tons of messages and that’s really helping me.»

Sam Davies, GBR (Roxy): “It is a real shame that he has gone so far and done so much and especially all he has done so much to repair the boat to get to the finish, and so it is a terrible thing for him.

It is never very nice when you go past people when they have had problems which are beyond their control and so it does not change anything from my point of view or my perspective of the race.”

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