After Sunday's storm of emotions, a smooth but intense first night. Dalin leads.

And so it has been a night of intense vigilance, constantly monitoring the AIS to watch out for other competitors around, whilst all the time trying to be on the making gybe, that is to say sailing on the course which takes you most directly towards the next waypoint.  At times that has meant some communication with different boats around to avoid potential collisions. 
 

SOLITAIRE SKILLS TO THE FORE

Those who have experience racing offshore in the closely matched one design Figaro fleet have maybe felt more at home and able to profit from their foundation skills honed in that intense arena. Les Sables d’Olonne’s own Sébastien Simon (Groupe Dubreil), La Solitaire du Figaro winner in 2018, worked his way to the front of the pack in the night and was a couple of miles ahead of Charlie Dalin (MACIF Santé Prévoyance) – who has four La Solitaire podiums. 
 

DALIN ON TOP

Dalin, one of the pre-race favourites had picked up speed and had taken the lead on the 0600hrs ranking, making just under 20 knots and heading west, just to the south of Simon whilst Briton Sam Goodchild (VULNERABLE) is in Dalin’s wake up to third place after a good first night. 

French favourite Yoann Richomme (Paprec Arkéa) routed to the east and south and is now one of the more southerly boats in 24th place but was making good speed this morning. 
And as the breeze has built into double figures so the foiling boats have taken charge, best of the daggerboard boats this morning is, not unexpectedly, Jean Le Cam (Tout commence en Finistère-Armor Lux) in tenth place but the ‘match within the match’ sees five daggerboard boats holding tenth to 15th places. 

COLMAN EXPLAINS 

After his period leading the fleet despite starting late because of a technical issue with a sheet in his prop New Zealand’s Conrad Colman (MS Amlin) is in 17th, reporting this morning, “The night has gone well, we are gybing in the shifts to take advantage of the variations in the wind to make it south west, the shifts are quite big 30-35 degrees, so lots of gybing and each gybe represents a lot of work, mental and physical, and there is a lot of VHF chat between each of us to coordinate gybes. But is all going well, it’s been a good night, I’m just happy to be out here now but it’s lots of work.” 

He explained yesterday evening that sheet of his large gennaker had slipped into the water and wrapped around the propeller. "It stalled the engine, it jammed the sheet and it stopped the boat from being manoeuvrable. So I kept the team on board with me, which meant that I didn’t respect the deadline to disembark my crew members, and so I couldn’t start like the others, even a little late! So I asked to benefit from the staggered start protocol.”

But he was leading he enthused, “But of course in the Vendée Globe you can have good days and bad days all in the one day.”

Best news for Japan’s Kojiro Shiraishi (DMG MORI Global One) so far has been that the debilitating seasickness which always affects the first few days of his ocean races, has not affected him so far thanks to the relatively smooth seas. 
Koji reported last night, “I had a good start – well not too bad, not too good – I was able to go through some gaps and it is fun to be back racing. I feel lucky so far to not have had seasickness, but the will come back and it might come on and be hard to cope with, 

The moon has been beautiful and I had Charal and L’Occitane en Provence behind or beside me it is very nice to be out sailing again. I don’t have a real set strategy but I need to adjust to life at sea again and I go step by step but I need to let my body adjust to the seaman I can be.” 

SETTLING IN 

Clarisse Crémer, too, has enjoyed settling into life at sea, letting the blizzard of emotions of start day subside, "It's quiet, we're downwind VMG, the night is beautiful... We can't ask for much better than that to get into the swing of things and come back down gently after the emotions of this morning, this afternoon, I cried quite a bit today, but so far, so good, as our English friends say. But I just want to take things step by step, hour by hour, wave by wave..."