Vendée Globe

December 15. 2008 at 15:20Bernard still working on his plans

Bernard Stamm talking about Cheminées Poujoulat early this afternoon
“She is floating albeit low in the water and heeled over. Everyone here has given me a hand and Dominique Wavre also helped me out a huge amount. If we manage to load Cheminées Poujoulat in time, I will also embark on the Marion Dufresne bound for Reunion or elsewhere. I don’t yet know what’s going to happen but there’s a lot of work ahead. The most pressing matter is to get the boat out of the water. It’s not possible to leave her in the water in the Kerguelens. This Vendée Globe started off badly and has ended painfully, because there’s nothing worse than seeing your boat driven onto the shore."

 

December 15. 2008 at 14:15I had 45/50 when it showed 25/30, so what happens when it shows 35/40?

From Rich Wilson, USA , (Great American III):

"No position 0930z but i'm ok, beacon problem i guess, under storm jib alone, no mainsail, another 50 knots of wind, not forecast on charts, did broach then crash gybe this am w/pilot, terrible big seas, boom into runners, they held, grabbed helm, crash gybed back, then trimmed in storm jib to go upwind to let me lower 3rd reef  mainsail to boom, no mainsail now, tied down, only storm jib had to gybe for iles crozet, now think might  have been good to have gone other north side side, baro going down again as i approach big center, but file shows less wind there, until the back side comes along, then more wind then up to now, and i don't know what that means, i had 45/50 when it showed 25/30, so what happens when it shows 35/40?"

December 15. 2008 at 12:25The calm between the storms

"The barometer is back in normal territory at 1012 after dipping all the way down to 984 millibars during the low over the weekend. Today it's sunny and cool with temperatures around 8 C on deck. The winds are light after the storm and I have full mainsail and genoa flying. Raising the mainsail from the third reef takes approximately 1 hour of grinding on the winch pedestal and I can feel the work out in my arms and shoulders after the past few days. I had a great sleep last night, actually took my boots off and got into the sleeping bags (using two now) and feel much better today. It's always nice to have some steady winds after a storm so I can catch up on some sleep. Makes the whole world look different. I'm coming up on Prince Edward Islands and the bird life around is amazing. Thousands of birds, maybe millions, live on these islands to hatch their eggs. Seems that at least a third of them have come out to greet me this morning as the sky is full of birds wheeling around. I often wonder how they don't run into each other. The next low pressure system arrives tonight and this time I'm on the correct side of it so it should give me good winds for the next few days,hopefully I will be able to make up some time on the fleet and to the finish."
Derek Hatfield (Algimouss-Spirit of Canada)

 

December 15. 2008 at 10:43Technical problems for Jean-Baptiste Dejeanty

Jean-Baptiste Dejeanty was making slow headway this morning and informed the race directors that he had been a victim of a series of technical problems: autopilots, torn genoa and damaged mainsail halyard.  The skipper of Maisonneuve said that he would be sailing at slow speed for several hours to head for lighter winds. He is currently in discussion with his shore team trying to find a solution to his problems.  Over the past 48 hours, all of those at the rear of the fleet have suffered two stormy lows: winds averaging 45 knots with gusts to 60.

 

December 15. 2008 at 10:01Flying along

"It's windy here today!! There are 40 knots of wind out here and big waves, and Roxy is flying along, for the moment, just about under control! Although, it was difficult to keep my tea in my mug this morning! I think that luckily the depression is a bit less nasty than it was for those a bit further back, and hopefully 40 knots is the most I will see! I am on a mission to stay in front of Brian for as long as possible!  We spoke on the phone yesterday and said to each other we must keep in touch as our routes will converge and we're not sure who'll be ahead and we don't want to literally "bump" into each other! I have just seen 45 knots of wind and Roxy did a GPS speed of 28 knots.... We were on the top of a huge wave and everything went quiet because nearly all of the hull was out of the water on the surf! I think I'd better get ready to take the 3rd reef.... just in case...."
Sam Davies (Roxy) in her daily message

 

December 15. 2008 at 09:22Relentless gruelling conditions

"A gruelling few days.  The low passed through yesterday leaving slack winds and a horrible sea state. Decided to tack north to be above the centre of the next low that I am in now.  Its going to take me north of Kerguelen, which is not great miles wise, but it does help me escape horrible upwind conditions.  I must focus on keeping the boat together, and of course me.  It seems relentless now, with so much strong breeze, but also the appalling sea conditions.  Its really hard to go fast in the boat downwind at the moment which is not great. Fells like I have lost touch with my little group ahead, who have handled things better.  But that’s just how it is and I am ok, just concentrating on making the right decisions and progressing. Really tired from the last few days, as I have not been getting enough sleep, and worrying too much – to much looking at the numbers, but when they are reading over 60, its hard to sleep anyway!!  Always planning the next manoeuvre or escape route/plan.  Its difficult when you hear the guys at the front are in perfect conditions- blue sky, 25 knots and a great sea state!!  I guess that won’t last forever and I will get some of that at some point, hopefully."
Jonny Malbon (Artemis II) in his daily message

 

December 15. 2008 at 07:34Dee north of the Kerguelens

"It is just starting to get dark now and I am sailing in 40 knots of wind still. I say still because at 2300hrs last night, which is in fact dawn here the depression caught up with me and I saw 55knots of wind as the front passed over me. It was scary conditions, strong wind, big seas and the boat travelling ever so fast. Aviva handled it well and it was me that was a bundle of nerves sat, tense, waiting, holding on. If you had taken me from the boat back to land I probably would have been a little shell shocked, sat in the corner, rocking gently and muttering under my breath. But now I have overcome one monster and I have another night of strong winds to go before a brief respite and then another monster appears, hurtling me towards the next great cape of Cape Leeuwin in Australia. Just in case Aviva didn't think I had been through enough she let me know who was boss by throwing oil around in the generator space, which was messy to clear up.  Now the big decision today has been north or south of the Kerguelen Islands. It seems to be that when there is land on the course it draws Aviva like a magnet. The plan was to go south but the wind was not allowing that to happen and when I ran the routing to the north, I lost no time and was better placed for the next monster so north it has become."
Dee Caffari (Aviva) in her message last night

December 15. 2008 at 06:12Wishing you were here

"This morning had a really close look at two islands at the northern extremity of the Kerguelens, they look like the spectacular islands off the coasts of the UK, like St Kilda, having precipitous cliffs, grass, rock and being totally uninhabited by humans. Spectacular lenticular clouds sat above the summits of the islands. Around me there were many albatross, petrels and smaller birds, and I tried to take some photos of them, Also a lot of fish jumping, around the dimensions of medium sized salmon. At present the breeze is increasing steadily as a low approaches from behind. This is only indicated as 30 knots on the grib files, but according to Steve  White from Toe in the  Water and Jonny Malbon from Artemis, its packing a much bigger punch, up to 55 knots. This low and the next one barrelling along behind are part of the reason that I passed to the north of the Kergeulens, so that I could be set up a little further from the centres of the lows. Also to be out of the iceberg zone for a time is also a good thing, as other yachts spotted several in the area, that could not be spotted by satellite observation. The cold front should pass by tonight UK time, the morning here at 73E,  the longitude of Islamabad in Pakistan.  It is a bit disappointing to see Sam on Roxy catch up a lot of miles in the last 24 hours, I expected to lose some miles as she came up carrying the breeze, but not be overtaken on the ranking! All credit to her, she stuck to the routing and had good speed. At present conditions are starting to even out for us, so the mile losses should be stemmed. Good thing is that both of us are catching some much needed distance on the leader, the incredibly hard charging Jean Pierre Dick."

Brian Thompson (Bahrain Team Pindar) in his daily message yesterday evening

 

December 14. 2008 at 20:05Greatest distance over 24 hours

Over the past 24 hours Sam Davies (Roxy) covered the greatest distance towards the finish.  Between 19h yesterday evening and this evening, Sam in 11th place, 835 miles from the leader, covered 388.5 miles. 
 

December 14. 2008 at 18:44Post storm hangover

"The low has almost passed but it has been a tough time of it. Last night and today the winds have been from every degree in the compass and I am exhausted from sail changes and manoeuvres since yesterday. The boat even stopped for an hour today with no wind at all. One hour later it was back blowing 30 knots again but from a different direction. I think I found the "eye" of that bad boy. The post storm hangover is on me today and I'm feeling very tired and drained. Normally it takes a day or two to recover from these storms but we are racing so little down time. I'm a little disappointed in the distance to the front but not surprised at all. Hopefully it will be my turn soon for some of those sailing conditions and fantastic speeds that we see coming from the front reports."
Derek Hatfield (Algimouss-Spirit of Canada)