101 Frustrations

Ridge holding the trio back 

And the final few days into the finish is not looking too good either with a continuing spell of light, offshore winds. It is not looking more like the 1st of March for Denis.

Van Weynbergh explained this morning “It’s okay but we’d all like to be home, to cross that famous finish line. Even if we like being at sea, 100 days is a long time and it’s not over yet. I’m working hard to make the boat go as well as possible whilst sailing the shortest distance possible. We’re doing our best as usual. Right now, the big issue is to get out of this Azores ridge and the Azores high pressure area. We’re motivated. It’s sometimes a bit hard to see everyone else finished and the others in the east. My electronic problems? The boat is no longer at 100% but that’s normal after 100 days. We make do with what we have. It’s true that I’m further west but it’s a choice I made in spite of myself. I didn’t have the same wind as the others. They managed to go further east!"

 And whilst a lot of this is new for Van Weynbergh who is set to complete the Vendée Globe for his first time,  Cousin and Amedeo are set to finish their second races. Amedeo completed the 2016-17 race in 103 days 18 hours in 11th place and will celebrate his 47th birthday on Monday, 24th February whilst Manu Cousin was 23rd in 2020-2021 in 103 days 21 hours. 

Cousin in the east should get out of the worst of the ridge later today and said last night, “It's okay even if it's starting to get complicated with the mental and physical fatigue. It's especially mentally that it's complicated. I obviously didn't set out for 100 days at sea even though I'm not short of water or food. I really didn't think it would take so long to do this Vendée Globe but we have to face the facts, there's still at least a week at sea left. We're on the right track, fingers crossed. Crossing the ridge is quite complicated. What bothers me is the squalls. There are a lot of big cloud passages and they're slowing us down a lot. There's already not much air but these many squalls are stopping our progress. We're constantly trimming and it's not easy on the nerves. If I chose to put an easterly course in my route, it's mainly to try to get around the ridge and be affected by it as little as possible and then go and find the anticyclone. A ridge at this latitude is quite rare, but there is also the Azores high pressure system which is lying under the influence of the large depression above it, and which we will also have to pass through."