Vendée Globe

March 06. 2009 at 09:04Zigzagging his way to Les Sables

"Our downwind zigzag continues with the wind directly behind us on the route to France, so we must gybe back and forth, increasing the distance by nearly half to actually get there. Went to solent and two reefs in the main today, averaging 11 knots. May reduce sail through the night to be conservative. Got a bit of sleep this afternoon at the chart table, and trying to keep up the nutrition and fluid intake. Should have half moon light, although cloudy, for half of tonight. "

Rich Wilson (Great American III) in his daily message

March 06. 2009 at 08:25Paprec-Virbac back in Lorient

Jean-Pierre Dick's Paprec-Virbac 2 is due to arrive back in Lorient today and will go back into the shed she left last October before setting out for the Vendée Globe. The boat and mast left Le Havre on Wednesday by road. The mast reached Lorient on a long loader yesterday evening. The blue monohull, which was forced to retire from the Vendée Globe on 1st January is being transported on a special trailer to enable the boat to pass under all the bridges. Some parts of the cradle put in place in New Zealand had to be removed to enable the total height to be reduced to below 4.6 m. Once back in her shed, Paprec-Virbac 2 is due to undergo a spring refit.

March 06. 2009 at 07:54Latest news of Raphaël

Raphael Dinelli has finished repairing his broken boom, which should enable him to continue the race in reasonable shape. After preparing all the pieces of the boom, he placed them inside his boat to take advantage of the temperature of around 25° to get them to dry quickly. By yesterday everything was dry and the repair seems to have gone smoothly. He still had to manoeuvre the boom out onto the deck and get it back in place. The sea conditions and wind were good and should have enabled this operation to run smoothly. As for his physical well-being, Raphaël is suffering from a broken rib and said yesterday that he had not been able to get much sleep, as it is painful for him to lie down. The skipper of Fondation Ocean Vital is due to be contacted this morning and should give us more details about his repairs and physical condition.

March 05. 2009 at 12:36Latest ETAs

Based on this morning's weather charts and positions, Météo France has come up with the following ETAs for the next three boats.
- Great American III: Between 12h00 GMT on Sunday 8th March and 18h00 GMT on Monday 9th
- Fondation Océan Vital: Between 12h00 on Tuesday 10th and 12h00 on Thursday 12th
- Nauticsport-Kapsch: Between 12h00 on Thursday 12th and 12h00 on Saturday 14th March
 

March 05. 2009 at 08:38Derek forced to make a pit stop in New Zealand

Determined to sail his monohull back to port alone, Derek Hatfield set out from Hobart aboard Algimouss-Spirit of Canada 6 days ago. He has been suffering upwind conditions with a lot of slamming, but it is a problem with the autopilots that is his major concern today. "The first night proved challenging when the autopilots would not drive the boat under true wind setting so it was difficult to get any rest or to work on the other systems on the boat. The autopilots have still not been resolved after 6 days at sea and we are now without wind instruments so the decision has been made to make a stop, this time in New Zealand to try once and for all to sort the electronics out before setting off again. Alone in the southern ocean is not a place to be when the boat is not completely sorted, the conditions here are unforgiving and these boats are so finely tuned that if you leave yourself exposed for any length of time something will break."

March 04. 2009 at 18:52PRB in her home port

As planned, Vincent Riou's PRB returned to her home port earlier this week. The boat was unloaded from the cargo vessel on Saturday evening and thanks to the help of the crew the operation went smoothly. At 21h30, PRB was lowered into the water in the commercial harbour in Lorient, then taken to the submarine base, where she spent the night. The following morning the team delivered PRB to Port La Forêt. The keel of the boat, which was also transported by the Russian cargo ship, was due to arrive in Port la Forêt later.

March 04. 2009 at 09:38Latest ETAs

Based on this morning's weather charts and positions, Météo France has come up with the following ETAs for the next three boats.
- Great American III: Saturday 7th March or Sunday 8th March
- Fondation Océan Vital: Thursday 12th or Friday 13th March
- Nauticsport-Kapsch: Saturday 14th or Sunday 15th March
 

March 03. 2009 at 16:10Raphaël - a suspected cracked rib

Late in the night, Raphaël Dinelli was working out on deck, when his Activ' Echo system alerted him to the presence of another boat in the vicinity. As the visibility was poor and the sea rough, Raphaël Dinelli gripped a running backstay, while looking around trying to spot the ship. At that moment, a rogue wave threw him backwards. Raphaël managed to get up, but was experiencing a severe pain in his side. He went back to his bunk to try to catch his breath and get some rest. He awoke a few hours later, but the pain remained just as acute. He therefore contacted the Race Doctor this morning, who has diagnosed a suspected cracked or broken rib.

March 03. 2009 at 12:20Latest ETAs

Based on this morning's weather charts and positions, Météo France has come up with the following ETAs for the next three boats.
- Great American III: Saturday 7th March or Sunday 8th March
- Fondation Océan Vital: between 11th and 13th March
- Nauticsport-Kapsch: between 13th and 15th March
 

March 01. 2009 at 20:27"What can we do?"

"We came across the equator into the northeast trades, which are the southeastern quadrant of a high pressure system sitting in the mid-atlantic. All the boats ahead followed generally the same route to the NNW until getting to the high, wherever it was variously situated when they got there, to wrap around the clockwise rotating high and get favorable winds toward France. The problem was that the high was dissipating and when we got to the north side, where there should be wind to push us from behind toward France, there was none, because the high dissolved. An alternative is that sometimes a low pressure system rotating counterclockwise, will come out of the US and track east and northeast across the Atlantic, and drag its fronts, most powerfully its cold front, across the atlantic, and you can jump onto this and get pulled across becuase the winds behind the front will be NW which you can use to get to the NE. And there was a front, from a low sitting up by Iceland, but the front wasn't moving, and had no real potency in it. So when we wrapped around, we sailed at one point, point to point 350 miles in 4 days. This is horrible and we lost 650 miles toward France because of this no wind in a dissipating high. So what to do? Ah, here comes another high, but the problem is, its coming out of Canada and moving east across the northern north Atlantic, so again, its generating northeast winds in its southeast quadrant. So basically, we turn north again, but we will have to sail an extra 600 miles north to get to its path. So we dutifully head north, into essentially another set of northeast trade winds in the southeast quadrant of this new high. So we clobber ourselves yet again sailing into our own private norhteast trades, storm jib and 3 reefs in the main, heading mostly NNW, perpendicular to the course to France, to try to intercept this new high.  So today what does the weather file say? Basically that the high will come across, center itself on our longitude, and stop for 24 hours, and expand. Now yesterday the high was forecast to be a 1035 millibar high. That is a high high! But today what is going to happen? It will stop in front of us, and expand into a 1042 millibar high. Who ever even heard of a 1042 mb high? I didn't know they could go that high. I've heard of 1023, or 1027, maybe even a 1032 mb high, but 1042mb? There might be no wind for hundreds of miles in every direction. So what can we do? We have to turn left by 45 degrees to try to go around it to the west, so that is why we're heading for Newfoundland, again. We can't get across in front of it, because we won't be far enough north when it arrives, and then when it eventually does start to move a bit, we would be smothered. So here we go again, stymied again. Who ever heard of a 1042mb high? It's laughable if it wasn't so painful. It will be likely 1 1/2 days to get across to get to the favorable winds, so another couple of days lost. Hopefully after that, we can ride the westerlies to France."

Rich Wilson (Great American III) in his daily message