Vendée Globe

November 20. 2008 at 13:40The Life of Brian Day 11

From Brian Thompson, GBR, (Bahrain Team Pindar): "It’s been a day in the sail loft for me on board Bahrain Team Pindar. I have been working on the A3 sail since 10am yesterday, through much of the night and will take at least all of today to get it finished. Hopefully then I can put it up to furl it and see if she stays up.

Much of yesterday was spent laboriously unwrapping the sail, as it was furled in 2 sections, above and below the luff to the tear in the middle. I had to unwrap the sail around and around the luff cable. With a 15m foot length you end up with a lot of sail to wind underneath and over its own luff cable again and again.

After finally exposing the luff cable, which I was most happy to see, it was a matter of finding out whether any bits of the sail were missing, by following the tear on both sides. That was fortunately fine and so then on to the actual repair, which is a combination of cuben fibre sticky back cloth, sikaflex and spray glue. No stitching required, according to our sail designer Yann.

It’s a long and tedious job, but the effort will be well rewarded with the joy to come if the sail goes into the air and stays together. That will be a nervous moment! I spent much of the night working on the sail, out of the sun with the light of the headtorch. Took a few naps on the folds of Cuben cloth, with the stars above and the boat doing 8 knots, it was great, its not often you can do that on a round the world trip..

Fortunately, I had this ideal weather window now where there was no water on the deck to unroll the sail, and little apparent wind to blow the sail off the deck once it was unrolled. I need to take advantage of this time, as otherwise I will be working in the forepeak in the SE trades, which won’t be nearly so pleasant. Certainly there was no way I could have unrolled it by myself in the forepeak..

Had a close encounter of the Roxy kind yesterday, I was busy unwrapping my Cuben fiber early Xmas present on deck when in came Sam on starboard, She gybed about a mile ahead and we spent most of the day glued together. We had a chat on the telephone as one of our radios must be acting up, and all is well on board Roxy. During the night I lost sight of her, and this morning she crossed my bow on starboard, heading out to the SW.

Sailing with Sam reminds me of sailing these same waters in the 2001 mini transat race which we both did, together with Arnaud Boissiere and Yannick Bestaven. Four mini sailors from one edition of the Transat now doing the Vendee, quite remarkable. It’s a big shame that Yannick had his dismasting in the beautifully revamped ex Aquitane Innovation of Yves Parlier. It’s certainly very different sailing on the IMOCA 60 with internet access, phone lines and access to expensive weather models. In the mini there was no access to the outside except your short wave radio receiver and your VHF. Having the information now is fascinating ( and essential for safety in the South) and being able to call home and tell everyone you are ok is priceless, but there was that simplicity in the mini to have more time just to sail the boat and be in the elements. The IMOCA 60 is part boat, part workshop, part weather station, part media company and part general office. But what a boat!

I think I will stay on port for now, as the doldrums should be clearing out as I get there.I am very happy to have got the westing in the day before yesterday as there was always much lighter wind to my east till now. Also this gybe is much better for the sail repair, so an added bonus. I should have a slight net gain on the leaders for this doldrum crossing if the weather models are right, though the leaders will start to make some progress today as the wind fills in for them too.

Currently on A2 spinnaker and full main and wind is up to 10 knots.

Naturewatch Ocean:  Saw a second stormy petrel today, and some flying fish.

34 degrees in the cabin today, water temp 27.9 degrees at 925N 2744W.

Brian."

November 20. 2008 at 12:39A wash and shave for Unai

You can see the latest video from Unai Basurko (Pakea Bizkaia), with his boat gliding along to the south-east of the Cape Verde Islands.  Just click on the video in the media section.

 

November 20. 2008 at 12:16Powering up

Derek Hatfield (Algimouss Spirit of Canada) is currently in 25th place, 1483 miles from the leader to the north-west of the Canaries.  

"I have been attempting to deal with a battery/charging problem for the past day so I may have suffered a little bit in the standings on the fleet. This problem was caused by the storm just after the start in the Bay of Biscay and it was not detected when we returned to the start line. I am more or less back up to speed now but watching the batteries very closely as I have not been able to solve the problem. I will continue to work on a solution.  Otherwise everything is good on board. The sailing is fantastic and the weather nice."

November 20. 2008 at 11:33A missing spoon

In third place, 30 miles from the leader, Jean-Pierre Dick (Paprec Virbac2) talked to his shore team this morning
"Yesterday was a bit stressful and I didn't get much rest.  I worked hard in the calms, but it's not easy.  There are sail changes all the time as you need to adapt to some very fluctuating conditions. The night was a bit quieter and I managed to sleep a little. The most important thing is I've lost my spoon.  Fortunately, I have a spare, but if I lose this one..."  

 

November 20. 2008 at 09:33Jean-Baptiste's night message

"Hi there! Everything is fine.  I've just clocked up 430 miles in 24 hours! After this long tack to the west, I'm really well positioned now to cover the North Atlantic in one tack! The wind eased during the night (20 knots), which enabled me to sleep a bit more than usual. In fact, I'm still in my sleeping bag.  During the night, the boat pitched into a wave, surfing along at 24 knots. I went sliding in my sleeping bag, from my bunk right across to the mast compartment.  Apart from that the boat has been marvellous and the automatic pilot is just incredible. I'd never tested this new generation in these conditions and I can say I'm really pleased about it. Will soon be under spinnaker...JB"   Jean-Baptiste Dejeanty (Groupe Maisonneuve)

 

November 20. 2008 at 09:01Michel Desjoyeaux has his sights on Steve White

Michel Desjoyeaux (Foncia), in 18th place, 369 miles from the leader is now under twenty miles from Steve White and under twenty-five miles from Dee Caffari...  
"The wind has returned. Over the past hour, Foncia has picked up speed again on her way towards the Doldrums and I hope to overtake Steve White shortly. There is a half moon and taking a siesta in the cockpit under the stars is really enjoyable.  I had a good sleep. Got sunburnt yesterday and meanwhile my friends up at the front are still creeping along.  I love it! Mich"

 

November 20. 2008 at 08:15Norbert's cookery class

Norbert Sedlacek (Nauticsport-Kapsch) was pleased with his performance yesterday, as the conditions are allowing him to sail along at good speeds in pleasant conditions.  Over the 24 hours up to this morning's rankings,  he covered 243 miles and is currently sailing between Mauritania and the Cape Verde Islands.   "That really puts me in a good mood.  And then on top of that I have just eaten my Chinese noodles, which taste better each day.  My secret tip: Cook the noodles as indicated, then simply leave them as in the steam for half an hour and then heat them up again and  there you have it. Enjoy your meal!"

 

November 20. 2008 at 07:44A passenger joins Rich Wilson

Rich Wilson is in 21st place this morning on his Great American III sailing on what appears to be an easterly option 507 miles from the leader.  During the night he looked back on the main events of his day.   

"This afternoon I finally lowered the reacher and hoisted the big genaker. I targeted a full-on effort to do the swap in 30 minutes. Made it to the minute. In gybing this morning several times, the last one had a sheet go over the side and get jammed in the windward port rudder, between the blade and the cassette that holds it. This was difficult to resolve. The rudders are supposed to kick up out of the water if they hit something hard enough, but the rudders on this boat don't come out of the water all the way. So after the sheet hit the rudder, it only came out part of the way. A rudder that is partially out of the water is a bad situation, because if it gets hit by a wave from the side, it could break. I knew I had to get the rudder out of the water as quickly as I could.  I put a line on the rudder and hoisted it clear of the water. Then I hung out over the stern with the boat going about 10 knots, and I pulled on the line until I was able to work it free. Going downwind as we were, the boat can use the effect of both rudders, so we were lucky not to have a wipeout or gybe."

"A bird came aboard late afternoon. It's never a good sign, either the bird is sick, or injured, or old, if they can't just fly along at sea, and need a lift. Hopefully, we'll get to within 20 miles of the first Cape Verde islands, and he'll go, to try to get to land. He's beautiful, white, preening, and when I go to the cockpit (he's standing on the stern now), he'll fly to the masthead and stand up there, hopefully taking care with our instruments."

November 20. 2008 at 06:52Dee looks ahead

Dee Caffari (Aviva) is in still in 16th place this morning, currently sailing around halfway between Cape Verde and The Doldrums, 345 miles from the leader. Yesterday evening she expressed a few thoughts about her situation.
"I am so aware of how visible every loss or gain is for everyone watching the race and my biggest fear is letting people down. So I have grasped today and am concentrating on sailing Aviva ever closer to the Pot au Noir as that is my next obstacle. Following that we can celebrate the Equator with Neptune. I will make mistakes and I have seen some already but the greatest fact of all is being out here to make them. My sponsor and team have given me a fantastic opportunity andI can't wait to put everything I learn from this voyage into the next races.
Already my feeling for the boat grows and after a few thousand miles we will be pushing a greater pace I am sure. So we continue south, Aviva and I, with little hitches to the west hoping for a favourable crossing of the doldrums and looking at what those ahead are encountering at the same time.  To celebrate my sailing south the iPod has finally been retrieved from the bottom of a kit bag and we have been cruising to Mika and Nickleback in style today."

November 20. 2008 at 06:26Is west best?

In the 5h rankings, Roland Jourdain (Veolia Environnement) climbed two places from tenth to eighth (in these rankings, Vincent Riou, was nevertheless not positioned).  Bilou's westerly option has begun to pay off. Yesterday in the first rankings of the day, he was 164 miles behind Peyron, while now the gap is cut to 121 miles. Bilou has now overtaken his old friend, Jean Le Cam, back in ninth place. By moving off to the west, Bilou hopes to avoid getting slowed down as much in the Doldrums. However, he will need to watch out, as the Doldrums may not have had their final word.