After ten days charging across the South Atlantic, mostly at near record speeds Vendée Globe leader Charlie Dalin (MACIF Santé et Prévoyance) had time to reflect before he crossed the legendary cape at 15:45:02hrs UTC this afternoon. His elapsed time from Les Sables d’Olonne to Good Hope is 19d 03h 43min of racing. It took him 7d 18h 39min to reach Good Hope from the equator.
“It was so fast that I don't really realize where I am. We moved towards the South-East at average spees which meant that we dropped between 5 and 6 degrees per 24-hour period and actually crossed many time zones in a short space of time. This morning, I was surprised that the day broke so early and it is summer so we are not into a Southern Ocean atmosphere yet but it's not so bad because it's more pleasant like this", mused Dalin who should then cross the longitude of Cape Agulhas, the southernmost point of the African continent, also marking the passage from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean a matter hours later.
So different to 2020
And at the moment the leading quartet are set to enter the Indian Ocean in relatively sedate conditions, especially when compared to the brutal period of 2020 which saw Kevin Escoffier’s PRB sinking four years ago tomorrow 30th November. Back then Dalin had built himself a lead of 300 miles but then had to throttle back in the Indian Ocean because of stormy conditions, especially the big, confused seas.
This time he has three rivals within 40 miles. Second placed Thomas Ruyant is only 17 miles behind on VULNERABLE, Yoann Richomme third at 35.6 miles on Paprec Arkéa and Seb Simon fourth on Groupe Dubreuil just 37.2 miles behind.
“We all knew that this would be a very competitive race and so it is proving. And it great I really feel like I’m doing a Figaro race around the world. Thomas, Yoann, Seb… everyone is quite close together. It’s sailing hard and it’s sailing fast!”
Strategic phase
But now after the speed race there are strategic decisions to be made which could decide who might even be ahead at Cape Horn…
"There are choices to make, positions to make, situations to manage. We've been spending a little more time on the computer recently than in recent days. The field of possibilities is opening up a little more". Says Dalin.
In fourth and very much in the match is Seb Simon who might be a little more nervous over the coming 48 hours or so as he passes the area where he suffered race ending damage to his foil casing in 2020.
The skipper of Groupe Dubreuil said this morning, “ I can't wait to be in the Indian Ocean, to set off in this huge huge South, plus it looks pretty good for us apart from a big depression, but no setbacks, it's going pretty quickly, there will be two and a half difficult days out of the nine to ten days of crossing, we'll very quickly find ourselves in Australia so I have a night with this somewhat calm wind and then the conditions will gradually get tougher but it will remain reasonable so it's great!”
The new 24 hours solo monohull record holder says a ‘secret set up’ was the key to his incredible speeds, “I had found a very strange configuration with the boat, I won't say more but the boat was running on its own, I didn't feel like I was pressing it like an animal either, but it was really going super fast and I did 615 miles in 24 hours while keeping the objective of preserving the boat, sometimes I made maneuvers to change sails and not damage the boat, to go and do check-ups on deck, I also reversed because I had something in the keel, so it could have been a little more! But the objective is to go to the end of this Vendée Globe.”
Burton looking for keys to a comeback
Now the key will be positioning and timing to get on to the next fast moving Austral low pressure which should some of the chasing pack my get to first.
"At the moment, we're gybing towards the South with little wind and not great angles while waiting for the next depression to form again", explained Louis Burton (Bureau Vallée) who, like many others are looking to the low to be the oxygen to relight their afterburners "It's not very pleasant to be a little behind. You have to manage yourself well, a bit like when you go up a big hill on a bike, that is to say without looking up the hill too much", commented Burton who took third on the last race, battling audaciously with the Indian Ocean low pressures to make big gains back then.
Reset, refocus….
Britain’s Pip Hare, like Burton, is looking to make good some of her deficit when she gets into the south on Medallia. She rues a couple of costly errors – she says – which dropped her out of the low pressure corridor.
“The last couple of days have been hard, really hard and frustrating from a performance perspective – a couple of mistakes saw me give away a few places – and then this riding down this front has been good for those who are at the front, the closer you are to the front of the pack, the better life gets.” Hare explained, “I feel where we are we have kind of missed out on all the good stuff. The boats behind are catching up, the boats ahead are getting away. And so it is now nice to be able to break the cycle and have a different objective other than sailing fast in a straight line which is what we have had to do for the last week or so. It is still warm with flat water, we have not had any sea state at all since the Equator, which is nice in a way but it kind of feels I want to get going. I am not relishing being slammed around I would like to get the handbrake off and get going east. So we will see what happens. It is 24 hours of trying to make ground to the south then we should feel the effects of the pressure coming through. And then we will see. I am hopeful that we will get back in touch with that second pack back.”
