Vendée Globe

January 31. 2009 at 18:21A welcome from his former rivals

Tomorrow among the crowds turning out to welcome Michel Desjoyeaux , there will be some of the skippers, who were forced to retire from the race: Vincent Riou, Jean le Cam, Dominique Wavre, Jérémie Beyou, Kito de Pavant, Sébastien Josse et Bernard Stamm. Some will be out on the water, while others have been invited along as expert commentators by the French media.

January 31. 2009 at 17:26Total distance

Based on the Great Circle route, the Race Directors have calculated that the total distance for the 2008-2009 Vendée Globe is 24,840 miles. However, Michel Desjoyeaux, and indeed all the other competitors, will have covered hundreds of miles more than this, as they have had to adapt their route to the weather conditions.

January 31. 2009 at 15:15Unexpected rough weather for Norbert

“Last night really heavy weather conditions started. I don’t know why, the weather report was not so bad but the sea is tricky and at 0400 LT in the morning a squall hit Nauticsport Kapsch very hard. Before I could be on deck the boom came back and the lazy jack broke. In the end it was a dangerous situation while Nauticsport Kapsch ran across the waves and I had to control the sails again. The wind was so strong that I was not able to bring the boat back on course for a few minutes. It seemed like hours to me. Then the squall became less strong for a few seconds and I was able to bring the boat back on course and furl the GE1 to the last 50 centimetres, just before the sail was furled completely the furling line broke. In the end I was lucky that nothing more happened than a broken cable and a broken block and I had to fight for 1 hour and I also hope that this was the last "present" the Southern Ocean gives to me! Right now, at 1400 UTC the weather is very rough, and the sea is really confused. It`s raining, but the wind is not too strong and the track is good. Now I will have some nice Chinese noodles and rest a little bit. After that things look better again!”
Norbert Sedlacek (Nauticsport-Kapsch) in his daily message
 

January 31. 2009 at 11:03Foncia 246 miles from the finish

In the 1000 GMT rankings, Michel Desjoyeaux was just 246 miles from the finish in Les Sables d'Olonne. He is currently sailing in the middle of the Bay of Biscay averaging 14-15 knots in a wind that will gradually ease off, as he crosses a ridge of high pressure

January 31. 2009 at 11:01Brian Thompson back in the Northern Hemisphere

The British skipper crossed the Equator at 0020 GMT . Bahrain Team Pindar has become the sixth boat to enter the Northern Hemisphere, 10 days 19 hours and 5 minutes after Michel Desjoyeaux. Dee Caffari should soon be following him. In the 1000 GMT rankings this morning, she was 80 miles from the famous line. 

Thompson’s passage from Cape Horn to the Equator is the second quickest so far this race, 17 hours slower than the time taken by Desjoyeaux. In effect their times could be considered comparable since the British skipper turned back to shelter in the lee of the Island de Los Estados after Cape Horn.

January 31. 2009 at 07:50Up the mast down in the Doldrums

“Busy days on Bahrain Team Pindar as I negotiate the infamous doldrums, and deal with a host of technical problems on board. It feels like I am over half way through the doldrums as the wind certainly shifted in the middle of last night from the SE to the NE and I am sailing into an increasing swell from the NNE, so I hope to be out of the doldrums by tomorrow morning. The doldrums have been moving north with me, so it feels like I have been going slowly for a very long time. I have been getting squalls that have completely killed the wind right back from when I was at Fernando de Noronha island. In general the wind is 5 to 8 knots, so it is not dead calm. The squalls might have 12 to 15 knots of wind just at their leading edge, which is welcome, except that often it is in wrong direction, and once the squall has passed there might be an hour or more of no wind at all, as you have to wait for the squall to move away whilst you watch the wind on the water coming ever so slowly back towards you.
I would like to spend more time on deck hand steering, trimming the sails, and avoiding the calm parts of the squalls to get through these doldrums, but every day I have been kept busy fixing equipment on board, so that I can get BTP to the finish line in Les Sables. For two days I was working on the alternator that had damaged its fan, then I had a day of working on the water maker, which was ultimately successful and then another long day working on the Fleet 77 communications system and the std C communicator, which I could not yet fix. Salt water and high tech satellite dishes don’t seem to mix. At the end of the communication equipment repair day, I was trimming the sails in the evening and noticed that the canting keel had eased down. Pressing the keel swing button produced some unusual noises from the electrical pump, it was spinning too fast. As I guessed, there was no oil in the reservoir, so where had it gone? Taking off the covers to the rams, the stbd one had lost a lot of oil into the bilge. After a while I saw that it was dripping from the sensor wire that measures the cant of the keel, and it was leaking fast, a litre every hour. I was lucky to have spotted it as I only have 6 litres of spare oil, and if more had gone into the bilge I may not have had enough to get the system running again. A close call! Meanwhile I am sailing on just one ram, which will limit how hard I can push the boat upwind. Yesterday, in good conditions I went up the mast to check the lower shrouds and put more tape on a chafed area. It was almost a pleasure to go up on a flat sea day and not be thrown around like a rag doll.
2 evenings on the trot I was visited by the same juvenile gannet, still very brown in colour. I have never seen such bad flying! As it flew close to the waves it would often beat the waves with its wing tips as it banked - very unprofessional, and as it flew close to the sails, it was so erratic I was ready to catch it, if it fell out of the sky. There was no soaring, just furious flapping… The second evening it was slightly better than the first, maybe this was one of its first sorties from its nest? Next time I come by I hope it will be an accomplished pilot.”
Brian Thompson (Bahrain Team Pindar) in his daily message
 

January 31. 2009 at 07:08A tired boat, a tired sailor

“Studying multiple weather maps for when to tack to stay on the west side of the big low developing off the coast. Tack too soon, and go sit in the middle of a stalled trough, tack too late and get on the wrong side of the low, with very strong headwinds. Of course, any decision is subject to the weather actually doing what the forecast says. So, thinking that if you tack too late, you can't make up the distance if the system has speeded up, we'll tack a bit earlier than appears to be optimal, so that if it has speeded up, we'll hopefully still be on the correct side. If it has slowed, we can always tack back to this side for a few hours. Anyway, hard decisions to make. Boat took a hammering last night again in big seas. Stayed up in the cockpit, like sitting up with a distraught friend, until figured I would fall asleep in the seat under the cuddy, and when the boat took a big crashing lurch, I'd go flying headfirst across the cockpit, so finally went below, sadly to leave my friend the boat to fight the fight on her own. In my studying of the weather with Jean-Yves Bernot last summer, I have in my notes a comment he made about getting to Cape Horn. He said the boat will be tired and you will be tired. He was spot on.”
Rich Wilson (Great American III) in his daily message
 

January 31. 2009 at 06:56Sam takes a long shower

“I had a perfect day of R&R, whilst Roxy has been crashing along in the trade winds! No sail changes, just the odd check of trim from time to time, so I have managed a fair amount of sleep. Even the crashing off waves didn't seem to disrupt my sleep. I wonder if I am going to have trouble sleeping in a still bed once I am back on land? The doldrums was hard work yesterday as we passed under a big squall line. Unfortunately the first set of squalls were the very very WET rainy, but windless ones! So, whilst tacking and gybing and trying to keep Roxy going forward I managed to get out the shampoo and had the best shower yet in the torrential rain. Whats more, the rain gods left the water running until all was rinsed off this time!”

“It was a close call, because I was quite near the equator at the time and I'm not sure what Neptune would have thought if he had received my toast of shampoo! Luckily, as we crossed the equator, the wind had returned and I managed to give Neptune a good ceremony with Champagne followed by a bar of chocolate! Now, as I write, it is dark, but I am honoured with a fantastic view out of my port porthole - our faithful star Venus has now been joined by the slither of a new moon and the two of them are shining in at me! Roxy is still crashing through the waves and the normal boat noises have been joined by the occasional "THWACK" of a suicidal flying fish making impact. Unfortunately I will not be making any flying fish rescues tonight because it is too wet to go on deck for anything other than boat performance!”

Sam Davies (Roxy) in her daily message
 

January 30. 2009 at 23:43Caught in the Doldrums

“Well I am well and truly ensnared in the clutches of the doldrums. For the past three hours I have been in torrential rain as if someone forgot to turn the tap off with wind from every point on the compass and from 9 knots of wind to zero. I have travelled forwards, backwards, east and west. I looked like I was playing a game of snakes and ladders in the water, although I am definitely finding more snakes than ladders at the moment! Big rain clouds cover the radar and I am not sure if I am into the next cloud or still stuck under the first cloud. My hands are now shrivelled like prunes and are beginning to hurt. I have tacked and gybed and changed sails and basically done anything I can to keep Aviva moving. The doldrums are going to make me pay a hefty price to get through into the stable Northern Hemisphere trade winds.”
Dee Caffari (Aviva) in her daily message
 

January 30. 2009 at 08:35Support for the supporters

“In fact, sailors invented rugby. There were thirty aboard a boat and time was starting to drag as they were becalmed off Argentina. They divided themselves into two teams, starboard and port crews. The scrum was carried out above an open hatch. When the rope bundle fell in, they created a scrum until the hooker managed to get the rope back out and his team scored a point. Back in harbour, they divided up again into two clans – port and starboard teams. It was only later that this became known as the “third half”, but the principle was the same. The shirt I’m wearing was signed by the 92 Metro Racing team. It was one of my Christmas presents. They are used to being supported and in turn supported me over the past three months. I can’t wait for their next match, so I can go and support them!”
Michel Desjoyeaux (Foncia)