 |
11:23 PM Fri 21 Nov 2008 GMT
Tonight, for the Vendee Globe leaders it is just about straight lining it, on the breeze into the trade winds, slamming upwind, it is a very different game now. In a matter of hours 'Sheriff' Lo?ck Peyron will break over the border into the Southern Hemisphere with a lead of just over 20 miles.
The chasing posse are absolutely on his heels, at Figaro pace.
The young gun slinger Seb Josse, a foot in both camps - French and English - rides high in the saddle, he has lead the chase for days and shows no sign of wilting.
His position remains strong applying 21.6 miles of lateral separation to windward of Jean-Pierre Dick, his sometime training partner in crime, two southern sailors managing to keep the hungry 2004 champion, Vincent Riou, at bay.
Dick has arrested third place again as we head into the night, 14 miles up on Riou who held third for much of today, and the four top boats are still within 40 miles of the leader.
Out to the west, holding steady, Roland Jourdain is 7th, Jean Le Cam still mining the east is eighth and slanting back for some westing, while Mike Golding holds 10th tonight. The 7th to 10th group have eight miles of DTL between them, even if their tracks are spread more than 100 miles west to east.
With the boats and skippers settled to the new rhythm the task they face is looking down south to the Saint Helena high pressure system(s) since there have been two to choose from. The situation has been looking messy, and there may be options to make big, and important, gains and losses.
One little enclave with smiles on their faces this evening are Wavre, Thompson, Daves and Guillemot.. They appear to have missed out on the Doldrums experience entirely for the moment. Wavre reported that he had moved virtually seamlessly into the Trade Winds and sure enough tonight they are making 10.2 to 10.9 knots of VMG - not really typical Doldrums pace.
Less fortunate seems to be Dee Caffari, Mich Desj, Arnaud Boissieres and Steve White. They have been swallowed by something very Doldrums like, and have slumped to 4 to 7 knots. Painful.
Voices at sea...
Steve White, Toe in the Water:
' If I can sort out this problem. The pilot works, but it is just the second set of instruments, I just can't see what it is doing. Once I get the second instruments then I can give it a test and put it to bed and know it all works, but I want to find a definite fault that I can put right rather than just have it start working again so that by the same token it may stop working again. I am looking for a nice clear cause as to why it is not working. It is a lot easier if you don't have to re-build the boat as you are going along. And, once this is done, that is pretty much it, regarding big jobs. Then it is a bit of string here, a bit of string there, and get myself up the rig. We only did about three hours sailing with the new rigging before we set off, and so you just have to go up there for your own peace of mind.'
Jonny Malbon, Artemis:
'It has been a pretty frustrating morning. I had the big spinnaker and full main all of yesterday and most of last night, and then the breeze dropped off a little this morning, so I went for the Code 5, because the angle was a bit hotter, and then that changed again, so I put the 3 up and now we are moving along quite nicely. I was worried that this light stuff would be her Achilles Heel, but touch wood she seems to be going OK at the moment. I have 24 hours to weather before I get to my waypoint through the Doldrums at around 25 west 5 north, and it I get through. I have maybe lost a little bit in terms of Distance to Leader, but I do feel I have consolidated a bit more westing. It is frustrating in the sense that I am still learning the modes of the boat, like I have done two big sail changes this morning, when I really only should have done one. That is the frustrating bit. But what will me most frustrated is if we get locked out in the east, that is my only big concern, so at the moment I am taking all the breeze that I can.'
Standings at 1500GMT, Day 6.
1- Lo?ck Peyron (Gitana Eighty) 20796.4 miles to the finish
2- Seb Josse (BT) at + 19.6 miles to leader
3- Vincent Riou (PRB) at +33.1miles to leader
4- Jean-Pierre Dick (Paprec-Virbac 2) at + 34.6miles to leader
5- Armel Le Cl?ac'h (Brit Air) at + 42.5miles
Selected international:
10- Mike Golding, GBR, (ECOVER 3) at + 75.8 miles
11-Dominique Wavre, SUI, (Temenos 2) at + 170.8 miles
12- Brian Thompson, GBR, (Bahrain Team Pindar) at +180.4 miles
13- Sam Davies, GBR,(ROXY) at + 186.5 miles
15- Dee Caffari, GBR, (AVIVA) at + 265.4 miles
18- Steve White, GBR, (Toe in the Water) at + 314.7 miles
19- Johnny Malbon, GBR, (Artemis) at + 353.8 miles
20- Unai Basurko, ESP, (Pakea Bizkaia) at + 386.6 miles
21-Rich Wilson, USA, (Great America III) at + 500.1 miles
by Vendee Globe media
|
|
Norseman Airport, WA
Windsurfing - Boards
Kitesurfing - Kites
Foiling - SUP Foilboards