Vendée Globe

Marc Guillemot is making a decent job of keeping close to Sam Davies this afternoon making a steady 11 knots while Roxy has slowed a little, between 10 and 11 knots

Altough Davies said again today that she is pushing hard to stay ahead of the tentacles of the high pressure system for as long as possible, she and the Safran skipper are living on borrowed time as far as the wind is concerned, and a slow finish is expected.

Guillemot said today he has had messages of encouragement from both Roland Jourdain and from Yann Eliès, the injured Generali skipper who he stood by before Christmas.

As far as the third place goes that he and Sam Davies are playing for just now, the skipper from La Trinité sounded less confident, but on much better form today after some much needed rest.

Sam Davies’s world may be turned upside down after she returns to Les Sables d’Olonne such has been the positive and enthusiastic response to her remarkable Vendée Globe race, but presently her desire is to make it back to the finish by Valentine’s Day, although she believes she is more likely to arrive Sunday given the current weather forecast.

The relatively benign conditions are ideal for Safran, contrasting very sharply with the gales which hit the Vendee coast last night, severly damaging parts of the regatta village which was closed all day today, and the radio broadcasts were completed in private, as the site was unsafe to allow public access.

Brian Thompson’s prediction today is that three boats may finish in 24 hours, Guillemot, himself and Dee Caffari, GBR, (Aviva), although he was not necessarily implying he has an inherent advantage over his compatriot. Predictions are that the British duo may have to go comparatively far north as this high pressure expands, before they can slant more directly for the finish. Passing the Azores this afternoon, Thompson considers his options may still be open at Cape Finisterre. Fast reaching, Bahrain Team Pindar, was making more than 15 knots this afternoon and had opened the margin to Aviva back up to about 69 miles.

For Arnaud Boissières, (Akena Vérandas) light airs are the feature today.   The Atlantic is going through a radical change and a series of small low-pressure areas are bubbling up around the Canaries.  There is some good news however.  If he manages to get away from these systems before tomorrow evening, he can look forward to some downwind sailing in a southerly airstream. Meanwhile, Steve White (Toe in the Water) is well placed in the NE’ly trade winds , which will remain with him until the weekend.  Rich Wilson (Great American III) has also found his way out in the easterly trade winds off Brazil, although he is sailing a little too close to the coast.  He still has 1000 miles to go to reach the Equator, and to the Doldrums which have moved back to the north.

And Raphael Dinelli (Fondation Océan Vital) and Norbert Sedlacek, AUT, (Nauticsport Kapsch) are in a high pressure system, Dinelli making just 3.4 knots, as the next low pressure forms off the coast ready to give them yet another dose of strong winds and big seas.

Sam Davies (Roxy): It’s fine weather out here, so I’ll try and bring some of the sunshine back to you.  It’s looking extremely complicated for the days ahead.  I’m trying to sail as quickly as I can at the moment to avoid getting caught by the high, but I don’t think I’m going to be lucky.  For the moment, I’m ahead of it, but it probably will reach me.  Then, once I’m in the Bay of Biscay, the wind is all over the place.  So I’m trying to work out what is going on and find the best route I can to get back to Les Sables d’Olonne.  I looked at what the computer is coming up with in terms of routing and the earliest would be Saturday morning and the latest Sunday evening.  I hope in any case to finish this weekend, but if I get stuck in a calm, that could make me 6-12 hours late and that changes a lot.  I’m going to be doing my best to finish as soon as I can.  I’m thinking of Marco, as it must be extremely stressful for him.  I’m feeling tired and he must be ten times more tired than I am.  Even if the weather isn’t being kind to me, I’m pleased the wind god is offering light winds to Marco to enable him to get back safely.  He’s lucky to have sailed multihulls as that’s probably helping his sail without a keel. 

Marc Guillemot (Safran): I don’t think Bilou will contradict me, but the boat seems very stable in spite of the absence of a keel.  I spent the night sailing under staysail with three reefs and gradually I was able to empty some of the ballast tanks.  The wind is certainly not very violent and I managed to get two naps, which helps a lot.  The morning got off to a busy start.  I went up the mast again to take down the lashings I had put up for the storm.  I climbed once and thought I’d fixed everything and then like an idiot I suddenly realised I’d left a rope up there to keep the lashings in place, so I had to go back up a second time.  I’m laughing about it now, as it was such a completely stupid thing to do, but it was in fact quite exhausting.  In this Vendée Globe, if I hadn’t rolled up my sleeves and got to work, I would have had to turn around along time ago.  It was just something I had to do and each time I kept telling myself this would be the last time.

The computer came up with three different routings and the most probable scenario has me sailing quite some way to the north.  I think I can hoist the Code 0 without any worries, but I don’t think I’m getting close to the boat’s polars, so realistically finishing on 16th seems possible.  I head what Bilou said about a boat sailing without a keel and it may seem strange, but the boat appears to be very stable and yesterday evening the boat was accelerating nicely up to 14-15 knots, which reassured me.  I can’t do anything stupid, but it is reassuring and I managed to get some sleep.  Although I did move my bunk around in case I fell out.  As far as finishing third is concerned, yesterday morning, it was in my sights and I could see it clearly with the naked eye.  Yesterday afternoon I would have needed binoculars to see it and in a couple of days I’m going to need a powerful telescope to see that far.  I still think it is possible but am only moderately optimistic now given the latest forecasts with light winds.  I shall continue to fight right up to the finish.  Yesterday, Yann Eliès rang telling me to be careful and I had a message from Bilou, which is really nice and I find that very touching. All those, who have raced dinghies know that a boat without a keel can be stable and Guillaume Verdier compared the boat’s behaviour to that of a racing catamaran.   You need to keep the sheet in your hand, be at the helm to steer and so that’s what I have to do to sail quickly.”

Arnaud Boissières (Akena Vérandas): I kept busy doing little repair jobs yesterday.  I’m only managing 5-6 knots at the moment.  I’ve just been looking at charts for next seven days and I have the impression there’s not going to be much wind, and what wind there is means I’ll be sailing upwind.  So I think it’s going to be very slow all the way up to the Azores.  I’ve got a bit of food left, as I’ve been saving some.  It’s true though I won’t have much diesel left, but above all, it’s the fact that the boat is getting tired and starting to find it a bit long.  I don’t have any real problems, but a few electrical worries and the rudders feel loose.  At speed, there’s no real problem, but when I’m slowed down as I am at the moment, they are moving about a bit.  When I heard yesterday that Marc Guillemot had lost his keel, that really got to me.  I think the designers are going to have to look at all the boats that have been forced to retire and draw some conclusions.  Losing a keel seems astonishing to me.  They’re going to have to take a step back and look at things calmly afterwards

Brian Thompson, GBR, (Bahrain Team Pindar): “I have the wind now but all day yesterday I was sailing behind a big cloud , well it was all around me, and it just stayed with me around five knots then it just disappeared at high speed towards the east and that is when the wind changed from the north east to the south east and ever since then I have been sailing along at a reasonable speed, which is great and now I am only 50 miles from the first of the Azores Islands, Flores.”

“The high is moving away from me so I can certainly moving it along for a couple of days and then choose how and where to approach the Bay of Biscay, depending on where the high is then. It is looking now that you might want to be a tiny bit north of the rhumb line, but then it might be very different when you get there to the latitude of Cape Finisterre. I am still reaching now and so it would be quite easy to come up or come down, when this low slows down  as it reaches Europe.”

“ She has caught up heaps in the last few days, so it is a lot closer race and I think we are in pretty similar winds, so not a whole lot in it between us, so it is all to play for in the last few days. Certainly I think we will finish close together, and I think probably

pretty similar to Marc, I hope he has a safe trip, but I think there could be three boats finishing on the same day. If it was a Sunday that would be great.”

“ It was cloudy earlier this morning and then there was a sharp line of clear skies came up from behind and now I am in totally clear skies, bright sunshine – but it is quite low on the horizon still, the sea is noticeably green now that I am back in non tropical waters, and lots and lots of white caps. I don’t have wind speed readings. There is spray flying over the decks and I have the J3 – staysail, and three reefs in the main.”

Steve White, GBR, (Toe in the Water): “ Everything is good, it is clocking round to the east at the moment which is good . I am at 70 degrees true, and doing between 350 degrees and North and so I am getting a nice little bit of a lift really. I am trying to shave the corner off a little bit but at the moment I am not quite sure what is going to happen over the next few days, but I’ll just keep plugging away at this and see what develops. Everything is quite well at the moment.”

“I am not going to catch him significantly and I suppose he will get going again. I am not completely clear on what is going to happen. It looks pretty complicated and what I am doing is downloading these forecasts from the Tropical Prediction Center in Florida which is more relevant to me and where I am at the moment, but they do go all go all way up to Ushant, but it does look a little bit of a mess at the moment.

I am sort of thinking that by the time I get up there that the worst of the lows will have gone through, and the high will have re-established itself over the Azores and I can do a sort of traditional rounding. I am not entirely sure about that, and I have a couple of days before I have to consider making any real decisions, at the moment I am getting some easting in, because it is an awful lot easier to bear away to go round the high if it pops up again than.”

“Food? Oh, crikey…..I’ve got stacks. Masses and masses of porridge, freeze dried I am down to rice dishes which I am not so keen on, I have loads curries left but I have eaten all my favourite ones, no tortellini left, a couple of pastas with tomato sauce which I like, dozens and dozens of pasta vesto, Isaac’s favourite packet pasta, baked beans, squeezy tubes of apple and custard, cake and custard and loads of freeze dried puddings, so I am not going to starve. In fact I was having a day of fasting because I am hardly using any calories at all propping up the chart table, just sitting here getting fat really.”

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