February 23, 2001 - 12:24:06 PM]
WHIRLPOOL, her skipper, Catherine Chabaud, and two team
members arrived in Vigo at 16h yesterday, 61 hours and 25
minutes after the boats’ dismasting off the Spanish coast.
An emotional moment awaited Catherine : a cable boat, LE
VERCORS de FRANCE TELECOM, (one of Catherine sponsors)
welcomed WHIRLPOOL into the port with resounding blasts
from its fog horn. Catherine’s team were on board the
VERCORS to applaud and cheer her arrival back on land.
WHIRLPOOL’s technical assistance team who had travelled to
Vigo by road, immediately took control of the monohull. A
race against the clock is now under way as they set about
building a jury rig in order to profit from a
good weather passage which would allow WHIRLPOOL to take
to the sea again by Sunday the 25th. Once at sea with a
south-southwesterly wind blowing, WHIRLPOOL would be able
to head straight for Les Sables d’Olonne, 470 miles away. If
this is the case, then Catherine would arrive in the French port
by Wednesday the 28th of February.
For the moment however, it is not possible to say if this
hypothesis will be
confirmed.
As soon as Catherine arrived on land she was taken to the
Vigo hospital to have her back checked as she has been in
much pain for the past 24 hours.
Source: Hickory Sports
Ed:
Simone Bianchette, Italian skipper of Aquarelle.com, wrote a
poem for Catherine in French, which can only poorly be
translated compared to the original, and it is as follows:
"I watched a raindrop fall from the sky,
I followed her descent,
Carried by an extravagant breeze,
One drop pelting down,
Hailing from beyond heaven’s border,
A beam of moonlight striking,
Smiling at her precipitation,
Illuminating her,
Fancy, transparent exoticism
Because she comes from a far.
I clench my fists tightly when I realise that her voyage is going
to end
She also becomes fierce
I watch her erupt violently at my feet
Like a little explosion of liquid passion
Then I lift up my face
And I remark
That your eyes when you cry are beautiful."
By Simone Bianchetti
Translation by Mary Ambler
[February 23, 2001 - 11:33:09 AM]
Progress towards the finish line has slowed for EBP/Gartmore
as she last night entered the high pressure ridge that currently
blocks the road home.
"Progressively the wind has grown weaker the last 12hrs and
last night was very slow" reported skipper Josh Hall."We have
entered the zone before Voila so Bernard has caught a lot of
miles on us which is disappointing after the hard work to
increase the gap over the last few days".
The weather pattern for the coming days is looking difficult for
these boats currently sailing 150 miles south of The Azores.
" There is a depression to the east, another to our west and
we are stuck in the high pressure ridge between them!! I
believe the depression in the west will eventually control us as
it should head towards the Biscay. However, when it does we
may well be north of it and have strong headwinds which would
be about right considering our fortune with the weather the
last 4 weeks!! Certainly progress will be slow and difficult for
the next 2 days".
The weather is not the only problem aboard........."This
morning I realised, at a rather important moment in the
proceedings, that I have run out of toilet paper!!! I knew we
should have installed a bidet!!"
Source: Fred Lemonnier, Global Marine
February 23, 2001 - 11:11:57 AM]
Pasquale de Gregorio (Wind) : "the cost we have to pay for
sailing under jury rig"
02/23 04:14 G 43.22S - 051.38W
"This morning we navigated pretty well with a 15-20 knots of
N-NW wind. I
intentionally headed off course to gain water Eastward to avoid
finding
me crushed against the Brazilian coast in case of East winds.
By mid afternoon, under a terse sky, and unexpectedly, the
whole situation
changed into a N-NE small gale. The barometer dropped very
fast and the wind turned in direction and force. I tried to resist
as much as I could, but
after seeing the leeward shroud (the good one) becoming
loose, sign that the other one was stretching, I had to lower
the jib and keep going on wind abeam with only the indexsail
half loose and the usual genoa bikini -this is the cost we have
to pay for sailing under jury rig-. Tonight we got into the 4-
hour difference with Italy/France. And today’s sunny warm day
indicated that the end of the 40’s is getting near."
Source: Oriana Ubaldi, Wind
[February 23, 2001 - 10:01:53 AM]
Thomas Coville (Sodebo): "The Vendée Globe, it’s a human
synthesis of everything worthy you have inside of you…"
"When my idea to do the Vendée Globe came to fruition, it
represented a professional resolution. A race such as this is
considered to be a solo affair, but you don’t do it alone. I
have a formidable shore team behind me. I love to share
what I’m doing, and these guys allowed me to do exactly that,
to share something magical. Even with Sodebo, my sponsor,
we’ve passed the stage where they are just partners. The
Vendée Globe, it’s a human synthesis of everything worthy
you have inside of you. You are curious to go and see what
it’s worth, what it’s all about. And you only see when it gets
tough, when the conditions are beyond normal.
"The Vendée Globe, it’s a mini-life. You have no repose,
neither in the space you live, which is constrained, nor in the
time, because it’s permanent life, 24/24, everything to give
the whole time. You can’t cut up the course into sections. The
good and the bad moments…I just don’t know, the race is one
whole. It’s a life spent servicing the needs of your boat, it
becomes an obsession.
"Meteorologically speaking, it was a really hard race. I think
about those still racing, those who have abandoned, like
Meteorologically speaking, it was a really hard race. I think
about those still racing, those who have abandoned, like
Thierry Dubois. Guys like that have had a much tougher time!
"The boats ahead of me were much better. Michel, whom I
have named ‘The Emperor’. Ellen, well, it was the perfect
anglo-saxon project. Not a single hiccup, and at the centre of
that project was a little sweetheart, poetry amongst brutes!
Bilou’s project was partly down to the architect, Marc Lombard,
and also down to Bilou, one got the impression that he had
caught his braces in Mich’s door: he stopped, the revved back
up, then stopped, revved up again…! As for Marc & Dominique,
we were all in the same boat: we were all running behind the
top three!
"What I’m saying is off the tip of my tongue, and it’s hard to
express it all. But I’m not looking for an excuse! Your boat is
an extension of you. You feel her pain… I didn’t know how to
anticipate in my project. But what I lost from a technical point
of view, I won in the 105 days I spent close those who
followed me. I didn’t lose the race on 2nd December 2000
when I hit the whale, but the 2nd December 1999, when I
refused to have a rotating mast. Then, we lost all our chances
to win the Vendée Globe.
"The winner is not the guy who has the hardest race, nor the
loser the one who has the easy time. There are no rules to
this course. When I passed Cape Horn, the ‘Cape of
Deliverance’ as we call it, it was awesome. It stood as an exit
from the cold, the icebergs… sailing along past Terra del
Fuego, behind Cape Horn island, there was a myriad of other
islands. When the dawn rose, the sun came out from behind
one of the islands, with an extraordinary luminescence. At that
point I was really not happy with myself or my race, and yet I
was just enchanted at this incredible sight! Mid crisis, when the
waves are tossing you around, and you’re sick of it all, kicking
your feet, at the same time you are telling yourself that this
same sea is wonderful, you are in awe of it. You have to be
slightly crackpot to do that, but I’d have to say that I am a
little mad!
"I want to stress three things: I got the boat home, I gave my
all in this race to be worthy of the confidence everyone of my
supporters has had in me, I wanted to be free and to hold to
my choices right to the end. And that’s what I’ve done!"
[February 23, 2001 - 8:23:48 AM]
Thomas Coville (Sodebo) - first impressions:
"The race is about the good and bad moments. It’s second by
second."
"I was up with the rhythm right until we were underneath
Australia. Then some small problem just threw the boat off
track. I gave it my all to come back from this but the weather
didn’t give me the break. The others were much stronger."
"It was more an inner battle after that, a fight to bring the
boat home and to not let down those people, who have
supported me."
"There were three core points for me: firstly, to be a sailor is
to get the boat back home; to say to myself "I gave it my
all", to not reproach myself about anything; to be free and to
hold to my choices right to the end."
"When you attack the Southern Ocean with a damaged rudder,
you say to yourself "you’re going to have to go there
whatever."
"Mich was not the fastest, but was by far the best. Ellen was
fast. However she made the mistakes, but her boat was well
adapted to all conditions. Even Sill, seeing the speeds he
reached, that was incredible."
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