Vendée Globe

December 05. 2008 at 11:45Where are the brakes?

"Sorry but the conditions weren't really favourable for writing at the moment.  Zooming along.  there are times, when we would like to slam on the brakes and apply the handbrake!  The weather conditions are ideal for us 25 - 30 knot winds and broad reaching, that helps.  Since the start it feels like I've gone off the official ski run on a mountain.  The fleeces are back on now and I'm sailing with the door shut.  feels like the south.  Almost in the Roaring Forties, while I'm still scarred by the Roaring Tens and my back is peeling for he winter.   The boat is in fine shape, but there are a few daily jobs to do, but no real worries.  it is however very wet! Impossible to stay at the helm, and manoeuvres are punishing in these conditions.  Fortunately, this time I've got my foulies with me.  Apart from that, a bit stressful in the surf.  A bit worried, but you mustn't think about it too much.  Listening to music to cut out the jet engine sound -  a lot of rap at the moment. "
Jean-Baptiste Dejeanty (Groupe Maisonneuve) in his daily message

December 05. 2008 at 09:22A chance encounter

Pete Goss, who finished 5th in the 1996 Vendée Globe, is currently sailing from Cornwall to Australia aboard a replica of a traditional fishing lugger.  He was surprised this week to spot the lights of an Open 60 off the coast of Brazil and after investigation discovered he was within a mile of Jean-Baptiste Dejeanty (Groupe Maisonneuve).  Astonished to see such a boat in the vast expanse of the Atlantic, he also discovered that although out of sight, Raphaël Dinelli (Fondation Ocean Vital) was also nearby.  In the 1996 race, Pete Goss went to the rescue of Raphaël after his boat overturned in the southern seas.

 

December 05. 2008 at 08:29Nasty scare for Steve White

"I decided to change down to a Code 5, which is like a rolled up mini spinnaker for stronger winds, as the breeze was hitting 30 knots regularly. I went through the motions, rolled away the gennaker, took it down, bagged and stacked it at the back of  the boat on deck, and as I was preparing the Code 5 there was a big bang that I felt through the boat - "Oh, we've hit something" I thought - not an unusual occurrence if you sail in the English Channel which is absolutely full of flotsam from shipping and rivers, and so I carried on and put up the sail, but when I unrolled it I could not get the boat to steer. Without further ado I rolled it up again, which is no mean feet in 30 knots of breeze, and looking over the back of the boat I convinced myself that the wash was different from the starboard rudder and the earlier collision had broken the tip off it. What went through my mind was pretty grim, the thoughts of coming so far to wind up in Cape Town to do a rudder repair or retire if I didn't have enough materials on board to fix it. At the very least I'd be re-starting at the back. I went all through the steering gear checking that the rudders hadn't been knocked out of alignment and everything seemed OK, so in desperation I gybed the boat with the ballast on the wrong side to get the rudder out of the water - it was OK! minus a big chunk of it's orange paint, but otherwise unscathed. So what was wrong with it, why wouldn't it steer? I put a second reef in and then - we were off with me feeling like a fool! The size of the swell and the increased breeze during the sail change just meant that the boat was going too slowly (ten knots) for the rudders to work, and I had heard the bang, put two and two together and made six! It's there in the Ladybird book of sailing on page three "If the steering doesn't work and the top guardwire is underwater, try putting in a reef!"  
Steve White (Toe in the Water) in his daily log sent during the night.
 

December 05. 2008 at 06:47Record speed for Foncia

Message from Foncia sent this morning at 03h30:

«It's fun, when we're sailing quickly, although the waves weren't much good for surfing.  The boat's record speed: 30.44 knots according to the GPS, but once or twice the bow has really dug in. That isn't much fun, checking to see whether everything is still in place - the mast, the runners.  After that we reduced the sail, but were still speeding along. You become more reasonable.
On a calm sea it would be possible to reach 35 knots.. I can't wait.  What is good when it's windy is when you've brought in the large sails and only have to work with the smaller ones, so you can really get some sleep. Bringinging down a 400m² spinnaker in 25 knots of wind,is more complicated than dealing with 130m² in 35 knots 35!  A broach under staysail and two reefs is easier to deal with than when you're under full mainsail and big spinnaker. Mich »

 

December 04. 2008 at 20:12Greatest distance in 24 hours

Bernard Stamm (Cheminées Poujoulat) covered the greatest distance in the fleet today.  Over the past 24 hours Bernard, in 15th place, 671 miles from the leader, covered 390 miles towards the finish.

 

December 04. 2008 at 19:40The Life Of Brian Day 25 Getting Ready for the Gales

"The mobile aviary left Bahrain Team Pindar last night at sunset, perhaps to go back to Gough Island. Now just passing a few birds on our route, and they do not stay for long, they have fish to catch. But what we have lost in birds, we have gained in waves, all shapes and sizes, some breaking, some not, big rollers and little sideslappers, and all of them cold to the touch. They have been formed by the 35 knot tail winds that are pushing us eastwards towards the first ice gate, now just over 100 miles away, and it’s the first Southern Ocean gale for us.
The boat is handling it really well, the bow is riding high with the gear stacked at the back and the aft water ballast filled. I have done quite a bit of steering today as the average speed is higher hand steering, but the real top speeds are always under pilot, as the pilot has no fear, and it will jump into the biggest hole if it appears in front of it, and ride it to the bottom, carving like a surfer across the face of the wave. The boat is bouncing off all the little waves and it’s a job to hold on down below when we take off on a big wave. The highest speed so far is 28.3 on the GPS.
Had a good tidy up last night to get ready for the strong winds today and in the process of stacking everything aft, I freed my bunk from storing equipment, so for the first time in 25 days I slept in something other than a bean bag. It felt good, but I won’t do it again tonight as I want to stay closer to the hatch and the instruments in case of any problems, so it’s back to the bean bag for me. "  
Brian Thompson (Bahrain Team Pindar) in his daily blog

 

December 04. 2008 at 18:10Pollution problem for Derek

Hello from Algimouss Spirit of Canada

" Pollution is today's topic, oil spills to be precise. Around 10:00 UTC this morning, white and red Algimouss Spirit of Canada sailed through a large patch of bunker oil and came out a sickly brown colour. The boat was surfing along at 15 knots or so and of course shipping a lot of water over the decks. The boat decks are now covered with sticky greasy crude oil. It's everywhere, on the ropes, line bags, deck hardware and cockpit floor. It will probably take me a day or more to clean it so it doesn't track inside the boat. A couple of days before the race start I was given a bag of Ecover cleaning solutions from Mike Golding's team, they sure will come in handy with this mess, thanks Mike. Otherwise the sailing is great and Jean-Baptiste and I are having a great drag race. He's not in sight but I know he's not far away off to my starboard side.  Now back to cleaning."

December 04. 2008 at 16:21Report from Rich Wilson, Great American III

Rich Wilson says all is well as he anticipates the arrival of more wind: 

"1400z, 36/45S 11/18 W, 6094 on log so far, 11.9 kts, surges to 20 staysail and 2 reefs in the main, 25-30 kts wind, clear skies still. Trying to hover between the edge of the high and the strong gradient, to get less of the strong winds. Have hanked on storm jib in anticipation. Building seas,
albatross around at a distance. Passed to north of Tristan de Cunha group of islands. A favorite sailing author, Tristan Jones, Welshman, was born aboard a cargo ship passing by these islands, thus his first name. Sound from keel has ameliorated, must have been a bit of fairing that is now
gone. Ran desalinator this am, have full tank of fresh water. Got some sleep in real bunk last night again, delicious. Understand Unai Basurko has rudder problem, confident he'll get it fixed soon and be back pressing, noticed on 4 am classement rating that he had slowed considerably, learned later of rudder issue."

December 04. 2008 at 13:32The low down on the first low

Mike Broughton,  Dee Caffari's weather trainer describes, in a little more detail, the  low pressure system which is reaching the fleet  at the moment:
‘There is a pernicious little low pressure system approaching Aviva from the north-west and is set to bring storm force winds for a few hours on Friday. A lot of people think the low pressure systems just roll eastwards in the Southern Ocean, whereas every ten days or so, a tropical low slips south in the centre of the South Atlantic.
Originating in Brazil, these low pressure systems develop on a long 'waving front', they hold a huge amount of moisture in the warm air and generate big thunder storms and gusts up to 60 knots. The system is deepening through the next 24 hours and will probably give Dee storm force winds around 'rush hour' time on Friday afternoon!’

December 04. 2008 at 11:28Roxy Rock n Roll

"Writing is becoming harder, as Roxy is moving around quite a bit on the waves now!! There are around 35knots of wind and we are reaching fast in a rather rough sea - quite fun!  Last night, when the wind was at my "limit" of 27 knots I furled the big gennaker. As you can imagine, to roll away 250 square metres of Cuben Fibre in nearly 30 knots is quite a task! The law works that the windier it is, the tighter the roll, hence, the more turns you have to do! So that makes a fair amount of winding to get the thing under control. "Under Control" is perhaps not the best word to describe what is now a very slim, but very stiff "snake" that is now dangling from the masthead. The next task (I remind you that the "platform" on which we are working is FAR from stable) is to get the said "snake" into the forepeak! Ha - easy I hear you say! Well, sometimes! The only trouble is that the thing seems to have its own idea of where it is going and how it wants to descend. It is so tightly rolled that it will only bend at certain points, and at other areas it is more like a spring! It reminds me of a TV out-take of a little boy with a live eel in his hand trying to put the eel in a jar, the eel will not go in no matter how hard he tries! Last night I was that boy, the gennaker was the eel and the forepeak was the jar!"

Sam Davies (Roxy) in her daily message