Madeira's cloud conundrum

Staying calm in the calms?

It has become quite challenging through the night, trying to avoid the pools of calm under rain clouds. Meantime the boats behind had pulled back a few miles on them. But the mindset shared among them is not to get stressed and remember they are all in the same conditions. With more than nine weeks of hard racing ahead, now is not the time to let tiny neurosis take over. Staying zen, focusing on keeping the boat moving south is the most important. 

Jérémie Beyou (Charal) is up to third this morning but has actually lost five miles to Richomme who has clearly found a better way. Beyou reported, “Everything started to get complicated again, there is a whole mass of clouds there that blocks our way, so not much sleep, a little more would not be bad, a little bit to eat too. It has compacted again the first ones have stopped a little, I hope that we will get through. The route ahead is extremely complex, this depression doesn't leave much room underneath it, so I don't really know where we're going to go! And yes, it's intense, I'm trying to keep a little bit of it under my feet (meaning: hold something back, ed note), to try to delay the sail changes, anticipate them when it gets stronger, and to delay putting the biggest sail back in when it eases off. I'm really trying to be very careful with the boat, it would be a real shame to damage it in these conditions, so I have been ultra-vigilant about that!” 

RAINCLOUD 

And Sam Goodchild, speaking in the wee small hours of the morning said, “It is all good, although I have just stopped in a raincloud for 25 minutes which is a bit tedious, hopefully the others will have done the same. The weather going ahead is not straightforward, getting to the Canaries you think you would be looking at trade winds, but they are not very stable and so trying to get south is not as clear as you’d hope, so it is how we are going to get south whether we go through the Canaries or there is another passage down.” 

Asked whether he is keeping himself quiet in terms of outside comms he replies, “I have a little comms with the outside world, not much. I check the Vendee Globe website to see what is happening in the race, see how my wife and kids are doing but that is about it.” 

WHERE TO PLACE THE CURSOR...

And of course on his 2018 generation boat, finding the right level of attack among all the newer generation boats designed and built for this race, requires a strong mind, “It is something I was concerned about before the start, finding how hard to push, when and where, but with the older boat than the new boats I find myself in exactly that situation now. It is a hard balance to find and last night I found myself going three knots slower than Charlie Dalin and just contenting myself with that, telling myself this is not the time to push and it is not the time to take risks and I tell myself my time will come, maybe he’s off. There is no point in taking too much risk. And I think I have done a fairly good job of just sailing my own race and trying to set my own rhythm and limits and not look too much at the boats around me. I obviously look to see what is happen and how things are going. So, yes I am surrounded my new boats but at the same time I don’t want to be making excuses.”

Goodchild continues, “I am happy with how I am looking after myself, I have managed to get a few decent sleeps in except for the night off Cape Finisterre but then I caught up the next day and then tonight this rain cloud but on the whole I am happy, I am managing to eat well as well, so  I am pretty comfortable, not over thinking the fact we are here for ten weeks.”

Germany’s Boris Herrmann (Malizia Seaexplorer) had pulled back 20 or so miles on the leading group since yesterday morning and is tenth. His long term goal is very much to get into the south in the peloton to be able to get on to the low pressure train’ on the right wagon’ as the French say – so in the same weather system rather than one behind – as his boat is very optimised for the big conditions in the Southern Ocean. Switzerland’s Justine Mettraux (TeamWorlk-Team Snef) is going well in ninth

And the daggerboard boat leaders are still very close together, Benjamin Ferré (Monnoyeur Duo for a Job) is about 10 miles west of Jean Le Cam (Tout commence en Finistère-Armor Luxe) whilst Conrad Colman (MS Amlin) is to their east and looking like he is slipping east and south of Maderia.