The Atlantic beckons for Seb Simon on Christmas Day

richomme exends

Leaders Yoanne Richomme (PAPREC ARKÉA) and Charlie Dalin (MACIF Santé Prévoyance) are scaling the  ice exclusion zone with this high pressure bubble to their west. At present that seems to mean staying as far east as possible furthest from the centre of the high to find the best winds. That  has worked a little for Richomme who has eked out a lead now of about 90 miles over Dalin who is very slightly to the left of PAPREC ARKÉA and has been slow, presumably in light winds. 

Working it 

Thomas Ruyant (VULNERABLE) is working hard to extend as much as he can at the front of the main group and on Christmas Day he thanks his blessings with a boat at, he says, close to 100 per cent unlike the last race when he lost his port foil. He has made sure to find time for his young family and enjoy opening a few presents whilst anticipating a special dinner. The skipper from the Dunkirk area in the very north of France, notes: 

“A Christmas day at sea is always a special day. It's a family day, where everyone gets together, and this is where we are, this is what we signed up to be doing today, but I spent a little time on the phone to talk to my children, my loved ones, to try to share a little bit of this Christmas day. I was pretty spoiled all of the month of December with my advent calendar, with little gifts or little treats every day, it was still really nice! I have other packages to open today, from my children and my loved ones, it lifts my spirits a little! I made myself a good meal, a guinea fowl with foie gras and leek risotto, that's the menu for the evening, with even a little mignonette of champagne!”

“The winds are not so unstable, I've had a few squalls, but they are rare, I mainly have a wind that is slowly establishing itself, I'm a little ahead of this band of wind that is moving with me, and I'm going to have a West-North-West wind until Cape Horn with a strengthening as I pass the Cape, 35-40 knots maybe but with a sea that's not too rough, three-four meters of swell. Not too bad conditions in the end to pass it, during the day of the 27th I think!”

“ I'm trying to make a good course and battle with the small group of people behind me, Seb Simon he's very far away, he's 1000 miles ahead. I know from having broken a foil four years ago, I had broken the port side, and it wasn't the right one to break! It's certain that with his port foil, Seb will be much better. In the South-East trade wind to reach the Equator, the Doldrums, so I think he won't be that penalized! Maybe on a few tacks in the South Atlantic, but the first three still have had pretty incredible conditions on the second part of the Pacific, we are still tacking in winds that are not very established. So there you go, you have to look at it a bit from a distance, and then put it into perspective a bit, it's sure that I've seen this thing happening for a while, I'm still happy to have a good group with me, it's racing hard, and I'm going to try to hold my place in front of this group, that's the whole point and all I want to do in the coming weeks! If there's an opportunity, obviously I'll seize it, but I'm not the one who will make the weather forecast, and it would only be on a stoppage due to the weather that we could come back, but that still seems complicated to me! I'm watching what's happening in the Atlantic, the South Atlantic is never an easy place, when you're from Recife it's pretty settled, but before that it can hold quite a few little surprises, situations can change very quickly, there are quite a few small depressions that are created there, so you still have to be vigilant, but we'll find the route, and we'll try to do it well!

Dutreux has a cold

Benjamin Dutreux’s present to himself is to have mostly caught up with Sam Davies (Initiatives Coeur) and Clarisse Crémer (L’Occitaine en Provence), he reports, “After six weeks at sea, and on this Christmas day, I feel good, I have a little cold that calmed me down a lot yesterday, I must have spent too much time going to buy presents in the shops, I must have met too many people, too many penguins and suddenly, I have a cold! I was pretty knocked out but it's starting to get better! The boat and I are still doing pretty well, we're still doing our thing  and we're trying to take care of each other, and to move as quickly as possible towards Cape Horn.”

“One of the best gifts would still be to be able to pass not very far from Cape Horn, and if possible during the day, but we do not always choose... but it can be cool to pass all three! But it is still a long time off in 7-8 days, there is Point Nemo to pass before, it is still a long way... As a gift, I had lots of photos of my loved ones, videos and everything... I did not ask for more than that, it is the best thing I could have! The taste buds were also able to feast, I was able to open my little bag, I only had dishes that I like, a little bit of foie gras, I haven't eaten it all yet, I think I still have two or three days because there was a good quantity, but suddenly I'm going to enjoy my favorite dishes for longer, it's cool!

Muted Christmas is fine every four or eight years

Conrad Colman (MS AMLIN) is looking to reap the benefit from his routing to the north of his rivals, trying to find some useable wind on the fringes of the fast moving Southerly Buster low pressure system tracking down the Tasman Sea, “All is good, I found the wind I came for, quite a lot in fact, I ended up with two reefs and the J3. I came up here as there was a big blue hole of nothingness down in the south and I figured if I did the same strategy as everyone else then I considered I would continue to do the same thing which was to stay behind them. When I saw this Southerly Buster developing in the Tasman Sea I saw a chance to do something different and hopefully gain and not end up giving ground to my other daggerboard friends. At least with the routing I have at the moment I am either tied with them or a little bit ahead. So I am really hoping that comes to pass. There is a crazy system waiting for us about a week down the road is going to be strong easterlies so we are going to end up down by the ice exclusion zone and so it will be interesting to see who crosses ahead. But at the moment I am pretty excited about following my option here. We will see how it works. 
Christmas for me alone is not really Christmas which for me is usually friends and family and being out here alone if a pretty poor substitute for that. But doing this once every four or eight years is no bad thing. I have no special food other than a pot of spicy pasta pesto I’ll be getting stuck into, otherwise I life is good am happy, I am trucking along. The biggest challenge I had yesterday was a small leak over my bed and I had some wet water coming into my sleeping back which was pretty uncomfortable but if given the challenge I am doing I figure that is pretty much OK”