[January 02, 2001 - 2:18:30 PM]
Javier Sanso (Old Spice) is happier in his unhappiness, and on
his way to Perth for a quick stop over.
In a fax to the Race HQ in Paris, Javier Sanso reported on his
conditions:
"Well, I am 1384 miles from Perth and wanting to arrive soon,
so that I will be able to leave right away. I have noticed that in
this edition of the Vendée Globe, a lot of boats are going to
finish, well I mean that the Southern Ocean has either been
more benevolent than usual or that the new rules regarding
stability and security have worked in favour of the sponsors,
boats and skippers.
"There are still lots of miles before the finish and in this
edition maybe the critical zone will be from The Horn to Les
Sables because of wear on materials. When I lost the rudder
my thoughts were to get to the nearest port and not going
round the world.
"Now I am happy to have decided to continue to Perth even
though it was double the distance from South Africa. At least I
will try and go round the world alone with one stop, which is
not that bad for my circumstances, so I have to be happy in
my unhappiness.
"Take care, Javier"
[January 02, 2001 - 1:52:23 PM]
Just before midnight UT last night EBP/Gartmore sailed across
the dateline and into longitude west.
"Its great to see that on the GPS" said skipper Hall "we are
definitely on our way home now!!"
Hall has managed to keep EBP/GARTMORE in a good wind flow
by being north and has stretched out a gap of nearly 1000
miles on Voila, at the same time catching a lot of miles on
Whirlpool which is now just 200 miles ahead.
"Its been a great week for us..we have halved the gap on
Whirlpool and quadrupled the gap on Voila, winning boat of
the last Vendee" commented Hall.
Hall’s sights are now firmly set on Cape Horn, some 4000
miles ahead. It will be Hall’s second rounding of the famous
cape and he is getting excited already.
"Its 4000 miles to The Horn still but I hope to be there in
about 2 weeks....its the next big milestone in the race and the
biggest of them all. I hope I pass in daylight and close
enough to see it again, it will be magical - especially after
being at sea for so long!
"If we can hang on to this weather system for another week,
the next one could see us there which will limit our exposure
to a bad storm down here. I am pleased to have a fast
enough boat to manoeuvre for the weather - the boats at the
back have a much harder time as they will be down here for
much longer and are not fast enough to give themselves
many options"
EBP/Gartmore reindexs in great shape with no major onboard
damage or problems , a factor which Hall still believes will pay
rewards back in Atlantic waters.
Source: Fred Lemonnier
[January 02, 2001 - 11:36:56 AM]
False alert onboard Whirlpool
Catherine Chabaud has had 24 stressful hours:
"It’s better than yesterday! I’ve had some problems with one
of my rudders and I thought the race was over for me…
My starboard rudder was very noisy so I went to check what
was happening but I couldn’t see anything, then the noise
calmed down for a while but came back worse later, so I tried
to investigate further.
I stopped the boat, but still I couldn’t see where the problem
was. At some point with the help of a mirror I kind of saw that
it was moving longitudinally, just as if it was cracked, so I
thought it would break. I gybed on port side, heading to the
North West towards New Zealand, and put more sails up to see
what was happening, but nothing did happenened so I gybed
again to the East thinking it probably came from somewhere
else. I spent a fair amount of time trying to find out where the
problem was, but apparently it’s a bearing problem so not
such a big deal. Rudders are a key point on these boats, and
since the problems I had in the English Transat, I have
installed an emergency system, but it would only help me to
reach a port if I needed.
I hit something along the African coast, I think it might be the
cause of the problem.
I am following a low pressure which is just ahead of me. The
water temperature is 11 degrees, and it’s warmer inside the
boat. I slept a lot after that as I was exhausted after all the
manœuvres I had to do.
It’s night time now. It’s really strange to be behind your time.
Today was sunny, the sea is like in the Atlantic ocean, we
don’t have any westerly swell. There are lots of birds around
me, the wind comes from the South South West, between 15
and 25 knots. All fine now!"
[January 02, 2001 - 11:15:11 AM]
Bilou (Sill Matines la Potagère): "The South isn’t the South
anymore!"
"I’m a little chilly, standing in the doorway, the water
temperature has shot down fast… could be in danger of seeing
some more white rocks (icebergs!) in this area, and so the
radar is on all the time. I get the odd squall which you just
can’t see coming, the wind under them is so variable and I’m
almost going upwind! As for New Year, it’s never been so bad!
I was upwind bashing through a low pressure system, and
snatched a few moments of calm to wolf down some foie gras
whilst being thrown around inside the boat!
"On the other hand my other celebration – rounding Cape
Horn – is looking better. But I don’t know when we’ll actually
get to experience the great swell which characterises the
Southern Ocean, with a strong 50 knot blow. I’m yearning for
some top surfing conditions for "Sill Matines La Potagere"
before then, and would hate not to experience them, as I
have been dreaming of these moments for so long. If not,
then at least I know I’ll be coming back! My friend Ellen is very
near, we’ve been almost inseparable since the Transat in
June…I’m a womans’ man, that’s for sure! This is such a great
story though, Ellen is really coming back, it spices things up,
keeps the journo’s busy, what suspense! Myself, I’m not
reacting to it right away. I don’t expect anything less of her,
she’s brilliant, a star…as long as she stays right behind me!
"I haven’t seen a single Albatross recently…the South isn’t the
South anymore! But I did see an amazing group of dolphins,
streaked with white lines. I’m on the look out for more
spectacular sights which the South normally offers."
[January 02, 2001 - 10:08:42 AM]
Furious surfing for Ellen MacAcrthur (Kingfisher)!
Well - there’s little more to say than FURIOUS SURFING. It’s
fantastic to re-find those downwind conditions, the sky even
became blue for a while this afternoon, and the waves building
into a large swell...
As the clouds peeled away from above, the horizon became a
layer of liquid gold.. quite beautiful. Again the thick white
foam as the waves break on our transom, and the gentle
humming - to excited whine as we ride across this
mountainous terrain.
A great moment today was putting on a fresh layer of
thermals under my many layers of fleece. The old layer was
fairly salty - and seemed never to dry, leaving me often quite
cold - even when in my sleeping bag.
The weather ahead is looking quite complicated with a strange
- 2-phase of low’s, more what I would have expected to see
around the Kerguelen’s. It’s certainly not text-book weather
down here - but then what did we expect. Every few minutes
the evening light in the cabin is dimmed by a wall of water
over the
cabin windows... time for a bit of ballast in the back tanks...
take care,
ellen
Source: Kingfisher Challenges
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