Vendée Globe

December 23. 2008 at 07:19Upside down world

"Nothing. Nothing at all. Not a lot at all. Nothing new. That was what happened last night to the south of New Zealand. We sailed as best we could, while waiting for windier times. In other words, we didn't do a lot. Sleep, tidy up, sleep, eat and trim. Time is slipping by and at night it is your day, so we sleep at day and chat to the world by night, as we're on the other side of the world. But in any case, our world is upside down anyway, so it doesn't make much difference!"
Michel Desjoyeaux (Foncia) in his daily message
 

December 23. 2008 at 06:38Repairs before the storm

"Another long day in the boatyard, worked all day yesterday, all night last night, then had 2 hours sleep at dawn before carrying on all day. Will probably go all night again and then I should be done, and can get some sleep, but actually feel ok. Been eating and drinking to keep up the energy levels. The wind is just starting to creep up to 20 knots and I am on double reefed main. Some of you may be wondering why I am going so slowly, and it is because I need the hull not to move and allow the crack to propagate further. Also now that I am more than half way through the repair, there is a lot of adhesive setting, and the steadier the boat, the more likely it is to hold in the correct position. It’s a bit like superglueing a broken plate – you have to hold it very still so that it can set. That’s the plan anyway, but it is far from perfect working conditions, so fingers crossed that the sheer amount of material added will overcome the lack of technical perfection. Another perfect sailing day today, but sadly I could not take advantage of it, but I did have a wonderful view of a pair of albatross this afternoon, circling the boat. They really are breathtaking animals, with their wings like a competition glider’s. Tomorrow big wind coming, and I will be monitoring the repair closely during the low. Tonight I got the big furling sails down and bagged up and am rigged and ready for the breeze to arrive. "
Brian Thompson (Bahrain Team Pindar) in his daily message
 

December 22. 2008 at 20:05Greatest distance over 24 hours

Over the past 24 hours, Vincent Riou (PRB) currently in sixth place, 485.1 miles from the leader, sailed the greatest distance towards the finish.  Between 19h yesterday and this evening, he covered 368.3 miles.
 

December 22. 2008 at 19:11Dominique averaging 12 knots

Dominique Wavre (Téménos II) still has 1110 miles to go to reach Fremantle.  He talked to his shore team this lunchtime:

“This morning the wind filled in quite markedly and right now I have between 25 and 30 knots, accompanied by a fairly big swell of around 4.5 metres. I wasn’t expecting it to be this strong. I thought I would be a little more sheltered than this by being up in the north and I also imagined that the swell would calm down a little quicker. The sun is playing hide and seek with the clouds and the light and colours are superb today. From time to time I settle myself in the boat’s companionway with my coffee to enjoy the spectacle. By tomorrow I should have been able to hoist a little more sail area and make a pretty much direct course towards Fremantle. For the time being I’m managing to maintain a 12 knot average and the strong swell is pushing the boat along nicely. The keel is moving but there are no suspect noises or water ingress. According to the forecasts, the wind could climb to 35 knots. Squalls are likely, so I’m watching the horizon, though there’s no sign of them at present.”
 

December 22. 2008 at 18:34Jonny's Christmas tree

Like several other of the competitors have told us, Jonny Malbon (Artemis) is preparing for Christmas and in his latest video, shows us his Christmas tree... To watch the clip, click here and select Jonny Malbon.
 

December 22. 2008 at 17:27Surgery on Tuesday morning

As soon as the frigate Arunta arrived in Fremantle, Yann Eliès was transferred to the Royal Perth Hospital where he is due to be operated on on Tuesday morning (local time). Welcomed by members of his team and the Generali group, he is now waiting for his family to reach Australia. Tomorrow, Philippe Laot and Jean-Baptiste Epron will be going aboard a 35-metre fishing boat to head for Generali, which is still hove to in the Indian Ocean. "We should be able to set off tomorrow», confirmed Jean-Baptiste Epron, who reckons it will take 5-6 days to reach the position, 700 miles south of Australia… According to Dr.Yves Lambert, Yann's doctor, who has spoken to the surgeon at the Royal Perth Hospital, the procedure involves inserting a pin, as this is considered to be the best treatment of a broken femur. The fracture is neat enough to allow this type of operation, which is commonplace and is well tested, in particular on the victims of road accidents.
 

December 22. 2008 at 16:52No quiet Christmas Eve ahead

"We're going to be fairly fast over the next 24 hours. There are some strong winds forecast. But it's not going to be much fun. We shall be at 120° to the wind, with the ballast in place to improve stability. The boat will be heeled over with water everywhere in the cockpit. We're going to be shaken about. Not yet time for long surfs. It should in fact act in our favour and allow us to make up a little of the lost ground over our rivals. It's not going to be a quiet Christmas Eve. We've got another 16 days ahead of us like that. After that we'll be getting close to the Horn -the way out of the south, which will be no bad thing."
Vincnt Riou (PRB) talking to his shore team this afternoon.
 

December 22. 2008 at 15:19Yann Eliès taken off the frigate this morning

The skipper of Generali was taken off the Australian frigate, HMAS Arunta this morning, a day and a half after the intervention of the rescue team, 700 miles south-east of Cape Leeuwin. Yann Eliès was taken to hospital immediately for a thorough examination. You can watch the boat arriving and Yann being taken off in a video clip (with French commentary).  To watch the clip, click here and choose the clip Yann Eliès arrives in Perth.
 

December 22. 2008 at 14:10Approaching Port Elizabeth

Sailing 120 miles from South Africa this morning, Maisonneuve is due to reach Port-Elizabeth tonight. Still suffering from a faulty pilot and wear to his mainsail halyard, Jean-Baptiste will be helped once he is there by a team of lifeboatmen from the local yacht club and a Frenchman, who has offered to help. After a quick return to France, a few repairs in Port-Elizabeth in early January, the skipper will set sail again, this time accompanied by his assistant, Ronan Cointo, for a delivery trip to Lorient in Brittany.
«This return trip is really dreadful! My final pilot made a mistake twice today and the mainsail halyard is 80% worn away in some places. I must admit that all that is beginning to get me down. I have tidied up and dried out the boat, eaten and slept. I even offered myself some time off to watch some DVDs, which I have never done before at sea.»

Jean-Baptiste Dejeanty (Maisonneuve) by e-mail.
 

December 22. 2008 at 13:27A long struggle for Derek

"With the continuous southwest wind at 26-30 knots I've had to throttle back a bit to keep the boat together. Since passing Kerguelen Islands, it's been pretty much a starboard jibe all the way to the west Australia gate. I spoke to Rich Wilson yesterday who reported having a close encounter with a ship which he only saw on radar after they has passed each other. It's a scary thought as we think we are alone down here. He tried calling them on the VHF but could not raise them. I check the radar a lot more often now.The nights are nasty cold on deck so it's just a quick pop your head out, look around and duck back inside before the next wall of sea water comes rumbling down the deck over the coachroof and into the cockpit. I had an incident with the control lines getting washed out the back of the cockpit and struggled for an hour getting the mainhalyard tail back onto the boat. Imagine 250 feet of line being dragged along at 15 knots. The load was tremendous and it was all I could do to get it onto a winch and grind it back on board. Today's lunch is chicken stew, one of my favourites."
Derek Hatfield (Algimouss-Spirit of Canada)