Tanguy Le Turquais (Lazare, 21st), who led the more daring group, escaped relatively lightly. After a fast passage from Cape Horn he remained ahead of the strongest winds, seeing "only" 40 knots. However, those further back, including Kojiro Shiraishi (DMG Mori Global One, 26th), were not so fortunate.
While while sailing off the coast of the Falklands he told us: “I have 50 knots of wind at the moment and I'm close to the ice zone. At this point, it's not racing. I am more surviving in this storm. I am in the strongest wind I will have for this storm at the moment, so I just hope to get out of this without any harm and to be back racing soon.”
Still in good shape
Nevertheless after so long at sea Kojiro’s boat is still in good shape. “The boat condition is really good, although I don't have any more spare battens, I don't have any other damage on my sails or my boat. What changed from four years ago is the boat preparation. The boat is really dry and I don't have to bail out water as much as I did four years ago.
“Of course the ranking my sponsor asked me to be in, which is eighth place or better, is really hard to take. I mean, being in eighth place in this Vendée Globe means that you need to be with the top of the fleet all the time. And for me and the conditions I'm in, it's not doable.
“The top two boats are doing an unbelievable race. They're doing great racing and it's really fun to see them racing this hard. In the group I am in, there are lots of rookies and young sailors. So the old man that I am is trying to keep up with all these guys, and I'm trying to do better than all of them. The Vendée Globe is the longest race in the world, all sports combined, whether in duration or distance. There are still many miles to reach home, it is not easy obviously, I must first get out of this storm and the rest will happen!”
"IT HAS PASSED FAST BECAUSE I HAD SO MUCH FUN!"
After two months at sea Samantha Davies (Initiatives-Cœur, 13th) has a boat that’s creaking and groaning, in a wild sea state, but the skipper is in good shape, upbeat and optimistic. She’s currently 1,700 miles north of Kojiro, negotiating a small low-pressure system spinning off the thorny semi-permanent cold front off Cabo Frio.
“I've got nearly 20 knots of wind, but the sea state is heinous, so bad I can't speed up because I've got these massive waves right on the nose and the boat is slamming so badly. So the sea state's limiting me – that's really annoying, but I'm just kind of making some progress the best I can... trying not to destroy everything with this really violent sea state – you can hear the waves just slamming and I'm actually sailing slowly.
“We've got to get out the other side and there's going to be some thunderstorms there and I'm not sure if we will end up stuck in no wind zones under the storms on the north side of this. There's not really much you can really learn from what happened ahead because I don't think the boats ahead had this little low pressure that we've got, so it's a little bit different.
“For me it just seems like the time's gone so fast, but then when I think about everything that's happened between the start and now, then you realise that we have just sailed around the Antarctic and this race is really full on. For me, I'm so happy to still be in the race.
“There are bits on my boat where I can see that it's been two months at sea and there's a bit of wear and tear. In this slamming sea it's just so stressful knowing that the boat's tired and you are definitely treading on eggshells a little bit. All the blocks in my mainsheet system are completely destroyed, but I don't have enough to replace them, so gently over the last few days and weeks they have spat out all their ball bearings bit by bit. Now I've kind of got just solid sheaves – I'm nursing my mainsheet because obviously it's wearing a lot more and the whole system's creaking and groaning. There are other bits on the boat that are creaking and groaning as well, but I guess that's just normal after two months at sea.
“Luckily the skipper's not really creaking and groaning, so that's good. I still feel in good shape and feel like I'm going to be able to push all the way back to Les Sables d'Olonne. Obviously there's been a few retirements and especially thinking about Pip (Hare), a fellow English female sailor and what happened to me four years ago. I guess the biggest conclusion and feeling at the moment is just so happy to still be here in the race and still be able to push the boat and send it.
“It's incredible to feel how quickly the time has gone and that we're already a pretty reasonable way up for the Atlantic looking at routing through the equator. The leaders are going to arrive in a few days – that's just even more incredible. The record time is going to be completely exploded.”
A chance to catch up
Following major rudder problems in the Pacific Ocean Italian competitor Giancarlo Pedote (Prysmian, 18th) looks set to well benefit from a favourable weather pattern, while the group ahead of him, led by Romain Attanasio (Fortinet -Best Western, 14th) remain slowed down by a high pressure ridge.
“Without realising it, I gave him a lot of gifts due to the weather, between the Canaries and the calms,” says Giancarlo, “so it would still be nice if I could have my turn to catch up with the others in front! But we'll see, I'm trying not to make a big deal out of it, just to make the boat go fast and then we'll see if there will be a compression in our group or not.
“Two months is a lot of time, and it's not over yet! The Atlantic climb can be long, there are storm zones, the passage of the Doldrums, we're still a long way from home... As soon as I've reached slightly better temperatures, I think it will give a big boost to morale, and life is beautiful.”
At the head of the fleet, Charlie Dalin (MACIF Santé Prévoyance, 1st) retains a 177 mile lead over Yoann Richomme (PAPREC-ARKÉA, 2nd), with less than 1,700 miles to go. At 0600UTC they were sailing at 18.7 and 20.2 knots respectively, but Charlie surely wishes he had a bigger buffer, especially as there will be a high pressure system to negotiate before the finish.
