At the other end of the fleet, more than 6,500 miles ahead on the water, the weather is getting colder for the leaders as they set up to negotiate the transition from the north-east trade winds to the North Atlantic’s winter low pressure systems that will propel them towards the finish in Les Sables d’Olonne.
Overnight Charlie Dalin (MACIF Santé Prévoyance, 1st) stretched his lead on Yoann Richomme (PAPREC ARKÉA, 2nd) to 167 miles and at 0600UTC this morning was still sailing more than four knots faster. Some 700 miles behind, Sébastien Simon (Groupe Dubreuil, 3rd) was the fastest of the leading trio, making 20.9 knots at 0600UTC.
Different strategies, same outcomes
The chasing group of seven boats is still only 140 miles apart in the rankings, yet this group has taken radically different routing options and is spread east to west across more than 700 miles of the South Atlantic ocean. Justine Mettraux (TEAMWORK - Team SNEF, 10th) is in the west, close to the exclusion zone off the coast of Brazil, with Jérémie Beyou (Charal, 4th), Boris Herrmann (Malizia - Seaexplorer, 6th) and Sam Goodchild (VULNERABLE, 5th), just ahead.
Thomas Ryuant (VULNERABLE, 7th) is taking a middle path, while Nicolas Lunven (Holcim -PRB, 9th) and Paul Meilhat (Biotherm, 8th) are well to the east, navigating around the St Helena high pressure system. “I am on the east option with Nico,” says Paul Meilhat. “We are far away from Cabo Frio and are followers, but not really followers because now the boats in front of us on the rankings are close to the shore. They took a different option and it's really interesting because I don't know if they're going to win, or if they're going to lose.
“On the routing they will be just a little bit in front of us, but I'm not so stressed because the race is still long and if we are not far away behind it's good. There are a lot of tricky conditions and a lot of games to play before Les Sables d'Olonne.
“My boat is in good shape. I have many little issues, but not big ones,” he reports. “So I can use my boat close to 100% of potential. Now we are upwind (VMG) in a medium wind, it'll be dropping slowly because we are rounding the St Helena high pressure and so it means that we are probably going to tack a few times to have a good angle to reach the equator.”
“...a black veil, sweat, nausea”
Meanwhile, Clarisse Crémer (L'Occitane en Provence, 12th) is still struggling with a shoulder injury. “...it was extremely violent. I had a slight pain in my shoulder blade and shoulder for a few days but I didn't pay much attention to it, it was more of a nuisance. And then all of a sudden, I leaned over to pick something up, and bam, my neck and shoulder were completely blocked. And the pain was so intense that I fainted, I didn't lose consciousness but I was sitting and I had a black veil, sweat, nausea, I didn't feel well at all for several minutes!”
After a discussion with the race doctors and appropriate medication, the pain quickly subsided and Clarisse reported "feeling much better, even if I had difficulty resting for a few hours. At the time it was really not practical, I was doing 35 knots, I was in the middle of the depression, there was a horrible sea, you feel vulnerable and fragile.
"I was already not in a good phase where I felt tired, where I had the impression of not sailing well, of not having the keys to what I was doing, then this came to add another layer!”
Bellion’s “total nightmare”
Eric Bellion (Stand as One - ALTAVIA, 27th) missed the chance to round Cape Horn and the Falkland islands ahead of a major storm and has slowed down to allow it to pass. “The last days, honestly, were a total nightmare for me because I broke the gear that holds the J2 to the deck. The J2 stay holds the mast up and I almost lost it. It was a total mess, total nightmare.
“I had to do my best to keep the J2 stay on the deck with ropes, with everything I could find to stop the sail unrolling out of control. During 24 hours, I was in low pressure going towards Cape Horn, the worst place in the universe to have this kind of problem.
“I had 35, 40 knots with the J2 moving a lot with the waves. I was knocked by waves, stopped in big waves with huge acceleration. So I had to wait 24 hours to have calm weather to fix the problem. And hopefully I succeeded. So I'm very happy, very tired, because it was really tense. This is behind me and I’m very, very happy.
“Now I have to behave as a good sailor and wait for 48 hours to sail round Cape Horn – it's not something I like to do. I'm sailing at 6.7 knots, doing my best to slow down the boat with three reefs in the mainsail. It's a long wait and a little bit disappointing because 30 hours ago I was in a big battle with other friends and I think I was sailing pretty well. I was almost the first of our little group and now they are all now very far from me.
So that's life. I'm happy because I'm still in the race and I'm happy because my boat is 100% ready to sail in the Atlantic. I have just to wait. That's life and that's the Vendée Globe.
