9:23 PM Fri 19 Dec 2008 GMT
Michel Desjoyeaux the Vendee Globe leader, has cranked up the pace again on Foncia as he heads for the exit door, his Indian Ocean rope trick complete, ready to pass into the smoother Pacific. He was just 50 miles from the Pacific highway this evening.
With his advance now 59.1 miles, the biggest lead he has had since he took the lead on the mid-morning rankings on Wednesday, Desjoyeaux is putting the squeeze on his rivals again.
Tonight he is making 20.7 knots to Jourdain's 15.5 knots, and while his perception of the iniquities of the Indian Ocean may be coloured by his own considerable profit, Desjoyeaux considers he has the speed to leave his rivals at will. 'In the descent of the Atlantic I was running the routing and the polars towards the maximum. Right now I'm running them at about 90 or even 85% so as I can stick to some of the others' speeds. If I see that someone is really pushing, I accelerate and if ever I see that someone is easing off the pace, I do likewise. I use the routing to make a mathematical comparison of what's happening on the water. It wasn't my thing before I started doing that but now it's all down to common sense!' he maintains.
Meantime Jean-Pierre Dick is battling back into the race with his re-born rudders. Paprec-Virbac 2 is making a more healthy 15.3 knots as he loops more south to re-join the fray, lying seventh he has 441 miles to make back if he is to catch Vincent Riou, next above him in sixth.
Steve White has been having a rough time over the last 36 hours, battling pilot issues. He has spent periods near stopped today trying to sort them out, and appears to have done so.
'The pilot is giving me some grief - I either spend my time on the edge of my seat waiting to wipe out, or wiped out, boat on it's side, ballast the wrong side etc.......not good in 35 knots which is when it happened this morning. But, I think we've finally got to the bottom of it, just going to sail slowly so I can rest for an hour and wait for the sea state to die down, then I'll stop again as I commission both pilots, then I should get going again I hope.' White reported this evening.
Earlier, four boats hadpassed the East Australia Security Gate - a prudent measure to track the fleet north within range of the rescue services.
Favourable conditions mean that the Royal Australian Navy Frigate Arunta has improved her ETA by three hours to approximately 1100hrs GMT tomorrow when she should be approaching station to start the evacuation of injured solo skipper Yann Eli?s (Generali).
Conditions are not anticipated to be as favourable tonight and so the ship may have to slow slightly.
In close cooperation with Erwan Steff, the Logistics and Technical Manager for the Generali team, Race Director Denis Horeau and Vend?e Globe Safety Consultant Alain Gautier a detailed plan has been put in place for the Australian Navy personnel to evacuate Eli?s from the Open 60. It is understood they will use a very large RIB to transfer the injured skipper. The improved schedule means that they should have around two hours of daylight to complete the procedure.
Those involved will be strictly military, while the medical supervision aboard the ship will be under the care of a civilian doctor, Race Director Denis Horeau confirmed. The civil doctor will assess Eli?s as soon as he is onboard the Frigate and draw up a detailed care plan.
'The have assured us of their care of Yann until he is feeling better.' Horeau explained today, 'They are very experienced and diligent operators and no one knows the conditions in the Southern Ocean better than they do.'
Erwan Steff outlined the improvement in the mood of his friend, the Generali skipper; 'He was able to eat, to drink and has managed to take some painkillers. As soon as he did that, about half an hour later he was able to sleep better, and since then his morale as been on the up. He has re-hyrdrated some. It is the first time in two days that I have heard my friend smile and laugh a little. I feel like he is now ready to leave the boat.'
A plan is also in place by the Generali team to recover the Open 60 whose position will continue to be tracked by the race direction team taking receiving a position report every ten minutes.
Steff paid warm tribute to Safran skipper Marc Guillemot for his attention and encouragement. Guillemot's words are those who has known great pain the desperation of waiting fro rescue. More than twenty years ago he was badly injured when the catamaran Jet Services capsized, sustaining two broken legs.
'Without doubt Marco (Guillemot) has really found the right words to push Yann through these difficult times. He really pressed him and motivated him to get to a bag today which he opened with his knife. And as soon as he had opened it and taken the painkillers he could sleep better.'
Derek Hatfield (Algimouss-Spirit of Canada) in his daily message.
It's a sombre day today as we all wait for news on Yann's condition and his pending rescue. I know myself I have gone over the scenario a dozen times trying to contemplate such a situation and it is a bit overwhelming. I know all the skippers including me wish these was something more we could do but he is in good hands and I can only hope that the situation will improve from here.
The high pressue system over my left shoulder is trying to capture me so I'm sailing as quickly as possible to get past Kerguelen and onto the next gate. I am expecting some more wind tomorrow from the NW which will help the situation. It's a bit of a light day today so I'm taking the opportunity to tidy the boat up, transfer fuel into the tanks and take the errant sea water out of the boat. No matter now water tight we think the boat is, it never ceases to amaze me how much sea water finds its' way into the different compartments that otherwsise are usually bone dry.'
Brian Thompson - Leaky ballast and torn sail.
'Out here on Bahrain Team Pindar it's been a busy time, with gales, so sailing with 3 reefs in the mainsail at night. I had no rest until this morning when I grabbed a few hours of naps. After that I went to look around inside the boat and remove some water that had been leaking through the front hatch. I found more than just water when I saw cracks in the inboard sides of both forward ballast tanks, just forward of the keel bulkhead. These act both to hold the ballast water in and more importantly as longitudinal stiffeners to the front half of the boat. The outboard sides of the tanks are ok, so I have 50% of the longitudinals intact.
Today been talking with Nick Black, Boat Captain and Andy Dore, our boat builder and we have all been in contact with the design office, to work out how to proceed. Firstly, how serious is it, and secondly, how to repair it at sea. Its going to be a big repair involving cutting a hole in the tank top so that I can repair both sides of the crack in the panel, and there is a lot of preparation work to get the surfaces ready to laminate. Also whilst this is going on, I am still sailing the boat, keeping up the speed, whilst making sure that there is no slamming up forward to make the crack any worse.
When I unrolled my J2 tonight for a bit more speed, I saw that it has a big tear on the leech. This is the sail that is permanently lashed on so there is no chance to repair it. I hope that it will be ok for the upwind sections in the Atlantic when the 3DL Kevlar fibres should align themselves ok, and that it is just in running that the leech opens and the tear appears and grows. So no more J2 till Cape Horn, that was my favourite sail, and the most all-purpose sail I had. Then I had a little struggle to get the watermaker to make water, and that took a couple of hours, as water is essential to keep me going to get all the work done! Got it eventually by using a half full ballast tank as the feed for the watermaker pump.'
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