[December 28, 2000 - 2:48:25 PM]
Desjoyeaux passes from East to West - Analysis by Philippe
Jeantot.
In the Vendée Globe, each skipper has his own landmarks,
but rather than birthdays, Christmas or New Year, they tend to
be geographical, such as the Equator, the Roaring Forties and
passing the longitude of Cape of Good Hope or Leeuwin.
Today, fleet leader Michel Desjoyeaux (PRB) will cross the
International Date Line, in effect he will live through the 28th
December twice. To be precise, he will pass from 179°59’59’’
East to 179°59’59’’ West, or from 28th December GMT + 12hrs
to 28th December GMT – 12hrs.
Significant for the skippers is that their longitude will stop
elongating to the East, and start diminishing from the West, a
sign that that they are truly on their way home to Les Sable
d’Olonne at 1°47 West. At this point, 5845 miles separate
leader Desjoyeaux from the rear of the fleet, Fedor
Konyoukhov (Modern University for the Humanities), which
translates to one month of sailing for the Russian. When the
first boat arrives mid-February, he may still be in mid-Pacific
Ocean, two months away from the finish line.
Thankfully for Roland Jourdain (Sill Matines La Potagère), his
immediate rival, the wind has filled in and he is back on the
chase. Behind Jourdain by just under 200 miles lies the young
British skipper Ellen MacArthur (Kingfisher), still coming up with
the goods. Ellen has got to the point where ‘Kingfisher’ was
launched from New Zealand in February, and the two have
sailed the rest of the Vendée Globe course from here. It is no
doubt a psychologically reassuring factor for her to have got to
this point in third place, from which she can now attack the
leaders instead of defend her position from those behind.
Faced with a 200 mile gap behind Ellen to make up still, Marc
Thiercelin (Active Wear) vented his frustration this morning:
"I’d really come back, worked so hard and now I’ve lost it all! I
was behind Ellen, when the wind eased off for us both. She
managed to get away but I didn’t. I climbed North to avoid the
centre of the depression and there I lost out again. My Finot
boat is a demon downwind but I don’t know, I just can’t seem
to catch Ellen." Thiercelin is impatient to reach Cape Horn
ahead of MacArthur.
Two other skippers also longing to get into the Atlantic leg to
be able to push their boats more competitively again are Josh
Hall (EBP-Gartmore) and Italian Simone Bianchetti
Aquarelle.com). Hall describes below how it is 10 times more
difficult to achieve anything on board on this "Disney Land
ride". He recalls in the 1990 BOC Challenge "the ecstasy of
rounding The Horn and almost instantly losing this big swell
and the fear dissipating hourly - it is that ecstasy I seek now."
All that Bianchetti wants is for this same 3 – 4 metre swell to
smooth out so that he can climb the mast in safety and check
his rig, which will for him now be after passing below the
longitude of New Zealand.
Now that the first ten boats have escaped the effects of the
magnetic South Pole, the autopilots are working coherently
again. Skippers, such as Thomas Coville (Sodebo), can now
recuperate from hours at the helm and constant anxiety,
sailing at no more than 10 knots for fear of repeated
knockdowns. Thomas himself has slept for a good 4 – 5 hours
"without putting the alarm on", which gives you an idea of how
desperately short of rest he must have been in recent days.
The overall impression given by the skippers is that now is the
time for all to start attacking again.
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