The rivalry between Charlie Dalin (MACIF Santé Prévoyance, 1st) and Yoann Richomme (PAPREC ARKÉA, 2nd) continues at full intensity in the trade winds on their 59th day at sea. Meanwhile, Boris Herrmann (Malizia – Seaexplorer, 6th) has experienced his second lightning strike in the last six months.
Among other highlights of the day, there’s talk of a great comeback by Alan Roura (Hublot, 17th), more new Cape Horners, a worrying depression, a dive under the hull for Guirec Soudée, (Freelance.com, 24th) and an iceberg spotted by Oliver Heer (Tut Gut, 30th).
The leading duo continues at full speed in the trade winds on a long tack towards the Azores high pressure. They will have to wait until tomorrow when they will cross a high pressure ridge for the wind to ease slightly. After that they will reach a powerful front that will allow “a clear passage to the south-east of the Azores”, according to Vendée Globe weather consultant Basile Rochut.
Dalin has been averaging more than 17 knots for the past few hours, allowing him to open out a lead of 197 miles away. As he gets closer to the high pressure ridge Yoann will be able to close up some of that distance, but routings show the advantage lies firmly with Dalin and he could cross the finish line on Tuesday.
In the meantime, however, he remains very focused: “The trade winds are sometimes unstable in strength and direction. I’m at 20 knots here but before that, I had a small area of light wind. I haven’t manoeuvred for a long time and there’s no immediate change of sail. I’m taking advantage of this to recover well and be ready to negotiate the ridge of high pressure. The temperatures are starting to drop as I move up towards the north. For the moment, I’m trying not to think too much about the finish because the race is still long.”
Sébastien Simon (Groupe Dubreuil, 3e) is also making headway by taking advantage of the trade winds, heading further west than the first two and has passed the doldrums with only two hours of calm. Unlike Charlie and Yoann, he will have to fight to benefit from the front that’s currently forming in Newfoundland. “The challenge will be to stay in the zone of strong wind on the edge of the front,” says Basile.
A fierce battle is still raging for the remaining top 10 places. The supporters of a more westerly route, close to the Brazilian coast, led by Jérémie Beyou (Charal, 4th) and Sam Goodchild (VULNERABLE, 5th) currently hold a slight advantage. Hundreds of miles further east, Paul Meilhat (Biotherm, 8th) and Nicolas Lunven (Holcim-PRB, 9th) have started to head north.
Nevertheless for them, “it’s not certain that the wind will hold, especially since the area is very disturbed,” adds Basile. This is also what Justine Mettraux (Teamwork – Team Snef, 10th) is experiencing in the west of the group: “It’s very unstable, very hard and has been complex. The thunder storms moved a bit more last night, it takes time to go through them. At the moment I struggle a bit with my weather information (because the masthead sensor is missing) and was lacking the J0 headsail in the light conditions we had recently. So it’s not been easy to be really competitive with the guys ahead of me. We can’t wait to get out of this and find the south-east trade winds again.”
Boris Herrmann (Malizia – Seaexplorer, 6th) has also been negotiating very virulent storms in this area, including two nearby lightning strikes that damaged the electronics and gave him a real fright. “Those who say that lightning never strikes twice in the same place are wrong,” he says. “It was one of the craziest days I have ever experienced at sea, a day I will never forget.
“All the alarms coming on and the boat gybing instantly, lying flat on the water, with the wind increasing, more thunder and more lightning. I don’t have many things left working: The radar is broken, the screen here doesn’t work anymore. I have no load cells whatsoever and I don’t have foil rake or keel angle data. The keel system doesn’t work as normal, but I can charge the batteries. I have power, I have the watermaker, I have the Oscar unit, I have wind instruments and one pilot.”
The trio of Benjamin Dutreux (Guyot Environnement – Water Family, 11th), Clarisse Crémer (L’Occitane en Provence, 12th) and Samantha Davies (Initiatives Cœur, 13th) will also have to face similarly disturbed winds. Sam seems to be gaining a slight advantage over Clarisse by getting a little more wind from a depression that is deepening on their path.
Behind, Alan Roura (Hublot, 17th) is celebrating. By skirting the ice exclusion zone, the Swiss skipper managed to claw back to within 30 miles of Jean Le Cam (Tout Commence en Finistère – Armor Lux, 16th). Also within this group, Romain Attanasio (Fortinet – Best Western, 14th) and Damien Seguin (Groupe APICIL, 15th) are progressing to the east to climb north at the same time as the anticyclone.
Part of the fleet has been subjected to a strong depression for several days that’s funnelling winds down from the Andes mountains as it sweeps across the bottom of South America. Isabelle Joschke (MACSF, 18th), Giancarlo Pedote (Prysmian, 19th) and Benjamin Ferré (Monnoyeur – DUO for a JOB, 20th) look well placed to get through, sailing fast ahead of the storm. But they must not hang around: “Now, it’s courage, let’s flee,” says Benjamin. “It’s a race against time to protect ourselves as much as possible.”
By contrast the following group of six boats, including Tanguy Le Turquais (Lazare, 21st) and Kojiro Shiraishi (DMG Mori Global One, 26th), will have to slow down and wait for it to pass. During the passage of the depression from Thursday to Friday, average winds of 35-40 knots, with gusts of 50 knots, along with 6 metre waves are expected.
Guirec Soudée (Freelance.com, 24th) is also part of this group and had to dive under his boat to recover his Code 0 headsail that had fallen into the sea and wrapped itself around the keel. The operation was carried out in water of 5° Celsius while “the boat was uncontrollable and drifting towards the coast.” After successfully retrieving the sail Guirec admitted to being exhausted: “I have no more juice but it would have made me sick to leave anything in the ocean.”
Behind, Éric Bellion (Stand As One – Altavia, 27th) enjoyed the fact that he had successfully completed his repairs following a problem with his J2 headsail.
After a frustrating week Oliver Heer (Tut Gut, 30th) has passed Point Nemo and spotted an iceberg on his route towards Cape Horn. “It was quite a cool experience,” he says. “Not many people experience sailing past an iceberg in the Southern Ocean.
“It was very frustrating last week. I have to say they were the most mentally difficult days in the Vendée so far. Sailing in 30 knots is easy, but sailing in two knots is very difficult and very stressful. The race is definitely living up to expectations. It’s quite a challenge and quite an adventure – the start already seems to be a very, very long time away. And I’m properly in my little world, in good shape and the boat is still in good shape.”
Yesterday, seven boats rounded Cape Horn. Benjamin Ferré (Monnoyeur – DUO FOR A JOB, 20th) spoke about the procession of emotions that it invokes: “Little by little, it has become my reality. I am unable to say how long it has been since we left, but I am still just as happy to be taking part in this Vendée Globe. No matter how much they have told us everything they want, it is extraordinary. It is all the emotions of my life condensed into a very short space of time. I felt it even more at Cape Horn. In life, you either cry with joy or you cry with sadness. There, I discovered that you can cry with gratitude. I wanted to salute all the people who have helped me, all those who allow me to experience this.”
