Vendée Globe

January 10. 2009 at 13:10A scare for Jean-Pierre

"There was a bit of a scare last night at around midnight, when the boat suddenly bore away after being hit by a wave in the wrong direction. The pilot didn't cope and the boat gybed. Paprec Virbac 2 went over on her side at an angle close to 70 degrees. From the outside, it was probably quite a sight to see. I was down below and leapt out of the cockpit. This required a rapid response, which is not easy with just one rudder. I tried to bear away using the damaged rudder. Fortunately, there wasn't much sail up and I was able to steer and take care of the staysail sheets at the same time. On my third attempt Paprec-Virbac 2 responded and then I had to gybe again, hoping that the rudder wouldn't be too far out of the water. With three reefs, it just about worked. I eased off the windward runner and pulled on the helm. The boom swung around and the staysail filled with wind on the right side: a successful manoeuvre."
Jean-Pierre Dick (Paprec-Virbac 2) on his way to Tauranga after abandoning the race

January 10. 2009 at 12:46Another twenty days?

The leaders have now completed three quarters of the Vendée Globe. Out of the 24,840 theoretical miles of the course, Michel Desjoyeaux now only has 5500 miles left to cover. He reckons he will be spending around twenty days more at sea, which would mean he would arrive in Les Sables d'Olonne on the last weekend in January. This is also confirmed by the calculations made by Sylvain Mondon of Météo France.
 

January 10. 2009 at 10:35More repairs for Brian

"On the final run in to the Horn, the ice gate is behind me and there are 1500 miles to go till the Atlantic. It feels like I am getting close now after the long tour around Antarctica. But it’s not going to be quite so easy… Last night I was getting Bahrain Team Pindar all ready for the winds to come, putting all the sails below before they became soaked, draining any water out of the boat and giving it a good checkover. I went into the bow compartment, through the watertight door, then through the final door to the crash box forward. All looked ok, and on my way back I checked all the bulkheads for damage, but on checking the reinforcing longitudinals on the floor, I found another crack, very similar to the one in the water ballast longitudinals. I saw another important repair coming on, and now with a very sparse supply of materials. I devised a repair plan that should work, just using bolts to attach shaped floorboard pieces either side of the cracked longitudinal. If that does not hold, I can add some precious sikaflex or epoxy filler. Currently I have everything prepared and just waiting for a bit more information before choosing how to get everything bolted up. Sikaflex can take movement but is not very strong, whilst epoxy is very strong but cannot take any movement before it sets, and using just bolts leaves you options and saves adhesives for later, but is the weakest. Weather is moderate at the moment, though there is a swell from forward of the beam that is not helping to calm the motion in the bow and allowing the crack to move slightly. As I get nearer to the Horn the winds will pick up so should be a classic rounding with plenty of breeze. However, the quicker I get there, the less strong the winds will be so it has been frustrating going slowly over the last hours, as I spend time nursing the boat and doing another repair. I am keen to get going again!"

Brian Thompson (Bahrain Team Pindar) in his daily message
 

January 10. 2009 at 07:12Time to push hard

“Going for West Pacific Ice Gate. Intense low north of the high that O'm in has been sitting there, perfectly formed, but grib files showed it originally moving slowly, then dissolving against high. I didn't really believe that, and latest grib shows that it will continue south, and eventually overtake this area with east wind, (strong). That would be bad, so going hard to try to get to ice gate and escape likely ESE’ly into tail of west wind before that happens. We'll see. I don't generally push this hard, but now is the time.”
Rich Wilson (Great American III) in his daily message sent during the night
 

January 10. 2009 at 06:54Sam counting the miles

“I am counting down the miles to Cape Horn now! I have had a "calm" morning - less than 20 knots of wind! Sometimes it harder work when there's less wind. As the wind dropped off this morning, and after gybing to get a better sea state, I had the usual wrestle with Genevive (my big gennaker) to get her out of her bag and up into use. So I have had another lovely afternoons sailing, gliding down the huge Pacific swell! It really is amazing how so much of the front of the boat flies clear of each wave as we take off on each surf! When Roxy is on a big surf like that, the bow wave comes out from the keel area (as the bow is clear of the water) and there is a big fountain of spay shooting out from the beam instead of the bow! The wind increased and a few 30-knot squalls have passed over Roxy. I managed to get Genevive rolled back up and this time she folded obligingly into her bag, and I stacked her to windward! In the last couple of hours I have had a big 45-knot squall, which was pretty impressive. It was twilight, with the huge full moon, and I could see it coming, so I was on deck, having taken the 2nd reef, wondering if I should roll away the solent... it was a bit late! But in the end the 45 knots didn't last too long, so Roxy stayed under control, but I think I got a speeding ticket for that one! The wind will build and stay squally and unstable for my run in to Cape Horn, so the sailing is probably not going to be quite so ideal from now on, but there's not long to go now!”
Sam Davies (Roxy) in her daily message during the night
 

January 10. 2009 at 06:35Bilou on today's radio session

We should learn more this morning about the situation concerning Veolia Environnement, which hit a sea mammal on Thursday. Roland Jourdain will be one of the skippers featured on the radio session at 10.30 (GMT) and will offer us a summary (in French) of what happened. He is due to give us a run down on the damage that resulted from the collision and tell us about how his repairs are going.  We will of course bring you the main details of what he says later on the website in English.

January 09. 2009 at 18:45Happy birthday, Vincent!

It would have been nice to be able to wish him a happy birthday under better circumstances, but today is the 37th birthday of the skipper of PRB, who is spending it in Puerto Williams, more than 10,000 kilometres from his home…
 

January 09. 2009 at 09:03Steve, the pole dancing koala

"It was a great start to the day - a bit of steady breeze at last, all six knots of it! I cannot describe to you what a pleasure it was to hear the hiss of the water going past the hull again as I lay in bed, it seemed an age since I had heard it last. At least the calm conditions have given me chance to complete the repairs; the gooseneck is now well and truly held in place with a fairly serious piece of composite engineering and some fairly serious dyneema lashing wound bar tight with a couple of Spanish windlasses below decks to two strong points on the keel. All the nasty cracking noises have stopped now, and I have a great deal of confidence in the repair. The generator is lashed down to some carbon dowels fitted to the bearers, as one of the mounts had ripped its bolts out and another had just sheered. I had a keel moment too. Down the side of the empty fuel tank on the starboard side, I caught sight of a dirty great bolt, and had a horrible thought that it must have been one of the draw bolts that go through the keel foil and it's socket inside the boat. I couldn't stand it any more, and I removed the tank and had a look - everything was fine. I think someone had just dropped a load of bolts down the side during the refit."

"When the sun came up and the breeze became steady, eventually it became spinnaker time. I got everything rigged and went for a hoist, but I could feel bumps as I pulled on the halyard - I thought I had damaged the top block, so down it came, and up I went instead! It is the one thing I don't like doing alone, but boy do you get a kick out of getting down on deck again afterwards! The breeze had come up and the boat was pitching and as I clung on for dear life like some sort of pole dancing koala. I really began to wish I had worn my crash helmet! All was OK up there, I just think everything had got dry, but on the way up I saw that where we had been sailing with gennaker and staysail, when we only use very little halyard tension, the halyard block had twisted and gradually sawn through the inner forestay! It is about seventy five percent through, so it was a very near thing indeed. So the rest of the day comprised four trips up to the second set of spreaders as we sailed along with full main and "Toe in the Water" kite. My arms and legs are like lead after all that I must admit, and my elbow feels like it has been injected with grit, but it will be OK tomorrow."

January 09. 2009 at 08:59New time for the radio session

Please note that the radio session with the solo sailors will begin with the French competitors today at 10h30 UTC followed by the English-speaking sailors at around 11.10 UTC.
 

January 09. 2009 at 08:08Akena rocks

"To motivate everyone aboard my veranda, I have found the perfect music on my i-pod for each manoeuvre: Dj ZEBRA, a bit of Star Wars and Joey Starr remixed: anyone with sensitive ears should avoid Noir Désir and the Doors ina remix. I've also got Ac/dc, Deep Purple, Red Hot, the Clash, Joy Division and some surprises (The Virgins, The Hives), some French classics (Boris Vian, Aznavour…) Available now in your record shop! In a few hours, I'll be passing the final Pacific Gate. There are some beautiful clouds, some rain, some birds, but you guessed that. Next time I'll bring my best camera. It's now been 60 days! I don't know whether that is long or not."

Arnaud Boissières (Akena Vérandas) in his daily message.