Vendée Globe

November 24. 2008 at 12:04Jérémie Beyou, afraid of imagining the worst

"Not the easiest of nights. The top set of spreaders, which I thought were not looking good, finally gave up the ghost.  Tried to secure the mast with the halyards in between the squalls and in particular, in between the cargo vessels.  There are people on land and at sea, who are very understanding, but others, who are crazy idiots.  Some cargo boats call you up and change course, while others pretend they haven't understood...

The goal is to reach somewhere to shelter with the mast in one piece. For the moment I'm not looking any further ahead than that for now, perhaps because I'm pragmatic or perhaps, because I am afraid of imagining the worst.

How do I feel today? A sort of hatred. The desire to start all over again,and find myself several weeks ago back in Les Sables with some other mast parts and ready to go. But time machines don't exist. I'm going to have to wait four years, enter other races and try to forget this one.  Let's not be too dramatic.  Worse things happen in life.  But I'm not the only one involved in this project.  It's tough too for Delta Dore, my team , friends and family.
Apart from feeling sad for myself, I feel upset for them too. "  Jérémie Beyou (Delta Dore)

 

November 24. 2008 at 10:13A bumpy road

Message from Armel Le Cléac’h (Brit'Air)
"Start of the third week on Brit'Air off Brazil.  Heading south on a bumpy country road (which is need of repairs..) before we reach the motorway… Everyone seems to be in a hurry and we're trying not to get stuck in a traffic jam.  I spotted my old mate, M. Riou during the night and now Brit'Air is out to the left. So I don't have time to get bored and no time to stop for a snack, as I must respect my schedule… So it looks like another sandwich at the wheel : as long s the police don't see."  

 

November 24. 2008 at 09:29Bernard dozes off for 4 hours

"Hi there.  The Doldrums were rather trying.  Yesterday evening, after 24 hours of non-stop squalls, the situation stabilized somewhat. I took advantage of that to tidy up the boat, eat and sleep for an hour. In fact, it turned into a four-hour long snooze!!!!  Cheminées Poujoulat came out of the Doldrums all by herself sailing well trimmed at 220 instead of 180°.  So consequently, I'm probably 40 miles further west than planned, out of the squalls but in some wind. The thundery zone was so active that it's no bad thing to have got out of there. Yesterday I entered into a squall at noon with 30 knots of wind and driving rain.  By 15h the squall had strengthened with the wind rising to 40 knots before dropping off to 30 an hour later.  When I decided to get some rest, I hadn't made it outside. Hope that gives you an idea of the extent of the phenomenon.  Time to get things back on track, as because extending the route is not something I had scheduled."

Bernard Stamm (Cheminées Poujoulat) by mail this morning

 

November 24. 2008 at 08:31Rock on with Jean-Pierre Dick

We learnt the other day that Jonny Malbon is a fan of Kings of Leon and cranks up the volume aboard Artemis to relax.  For Jean-Pierre Dick (Paprec-Virbac 2), French rock band, Téléphone seems to cheer him up.  You can see the effect on his latest video.  Just click on 'videos' in the media section.

 

November 24. 2008 at 07:32Sam's skiing holiday

"Hello everyone!

Now Roxy and I, like the rest of the fleet, are bouncing along upwind in the S Atlantic SE trade winds. Life is now existing at an angle of 30 degrees, on port tack, meaning that my right leg will soon be longer than my left one, added in with a few bumps as we are on "rough terrain"! Doing anything requires care, and I have been likening this to my skiing trips in Avoriaz, when I frequently find myself prostrate across a steep incline! The top tip is :"bend the knees" , "stand across the slope" and "always keep the weight on the downhill ski." It seems to work here too!

The wind is fairly stable, and the angle means that there is relatively little to be done to keep Roxy going fast - a few changes of sail trim, and occasionally a change from Solent to staysail or vice versa. This has meant that I can catch up on some sleep and rest. I have also done some morev weather study, and today I organised my i-tunes a bit better!" 

Sam Davies (Roxy)

November 24. 2008 at 07:13The leaning power of Foncia

"It's true that if you don't like leaning over all the time, you shouldn't be in a monohull.  If you like surfing along the waves, you need to be patient when heading upwind. We're all a bit dumb really. We haven't invented anything to speed it up mechanically.  We carry on with our seal skins, although you could say I suppose we were taking advantage of nature, like here when we sail upwind for five days or even a week on one tack. When I think that looking back to past Vendée Globes, people said that to win the Vendée, you had to go fast in the south and upwind sailing didn't matter. Darwin was right.  It's the survival of the fittest - the one who can best adapt. Enjoy your night lying flat in your bed.
Mich"

Michel Desjoyeaux (Foncia)

 

November 23. 2008 at 21:26Decisions to be made later, rather than sooner

Between the high pressure area in the south and South Africa, a series of small low-pressure area are bubbling up with fronts, and erratic winds have been in place for several days and this will be the case until Wednesday.  By then, the leading group will already be at the latitude of Salvador da Bahia, still with east south-easterly winds.  Thus there is no short cut to cut across towards the Cape of Good Hope, as the further east the boat, the stronger the headwinds.  The normal route, which means a gradual route towards South Africa seems to be blocked for the moment. If this configuration lasts they will have to sail upwind down almost the whole of the South Atlantic  to 32° South, or more than 1500 miles and practically a week of sailing… Already 46 hours outside of the 2004 record time to the Equator, the fleet would lose even more days in this stretch to the Cape of Good Hope.
 
At the moment, it is too early to tell what exactly will happen in the South Atlantic, but the question will be raised by the solo sailors on Monday evening, as choices will need to be made: a move towards the Brazilian coast to sail more quickly or hug the wind to move south-eastwards to  pick up the headwinds as soon as possible. Or maybe wait patiently for the situation to evolve so that a decision can be made later.  They will all be watching each other.  Once again, those chasing on behind should have an advantage watching what happens to then leaders. It's not easy being at the front!

DB

November 23. 2008 at 21:25Jonny Malbon, A difficult few days

Hi, had a very difficult few days, lots of squalls, totally becalmed while boats sailing past me to the east!  Yesterday was 1 long squall with 20-36 knots for ages.  Thunder and lightning in the night….  Last night was better with less squalls and less wind.

I have a problem with my charging system, which has caused a spike to the fleet 77.  the Fleet is no longer operational.  I have spent all day trying to fix it, but it will have to wait until tomorrow.  Fingers crossed!!

Other than that life is good, I need some rest for sure, so will try in a minute.   hope the next few days will be less frustrating and that I can recover some of the lost miles. 

Cheers, jonny and Artemis II

November 23. 2008 at 20:18Greatest distance in 24 hours

Once again, it is the sailor bringing up the rear of the fleet, who has covered the greatest distance in 24 hours.  Jean-Baptiste Dejeanty (Groupe Maisonneuve), who restarted the race a week after the official start covered 326.9 nautical miles towards the finish over the past 24 hours. Still in 26th place, he is currently sailing to the north of the Cape Verde Islands around 146 miles behind Derek Hatfield (Algimouss-Spirit of Canada).

 

November 23. 2008 at 19:45Jérémie Beyou proceeding with the utmost caution

Jérémie Beyou (Delta Dore) has decided to head for the Brazilian port of Salvador da Bahia, following damage to his spreaders.  He has reduced speed and is attempting to avoid putting any additional strain on the rig.  This evening he sent the following message to the race directors.

"I'm heading for Bahia. That should allow me to continue with the wind on the beam and stay on the port tack. I'm trying to sail heeled over (keel down) to stop the spreaders from banging into the mast tube. I tried to get hold of them, but with the sea state, it's moving around too much and I almost had my head cut off. So I just hope they don't destroy the mast before I reach calm waters and that the mast will remain standing."