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5. Vendee Globe 2004/2005
www.vendeeglobe.org - zur Übersicht
Positionstabelle 22.12.2004
Press release
Wednesday 22 December 2004
16h00 GMT 22 December 2004
1. Jean Le Cam (Bonduelle) 10 832,5 nautical miles from the finish
2. Vincent Riou (PRB) 47,7 nm from the leader.
3. Mike Golding (Ecover) 324,5 nm from the leader.
Iceberg Minefield
The head of the fleet in this Vendée Globe are delicately picking their way through an iceberg minefield, the danger zone strewn across 177°E, just before the passage of the International Date Line South-East of New Zealand.
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Karen Leibovici trifft Raphael Dinelli
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The first to spot a 2 mile long iceberg at around 0900 GMT this morning, an anxious Jean Le Cam (Bonduelle) quickly spread the word behind him, second placed Vincent Riou (PRB) immediately tacking north in reply. Three hours later, the latter had passed two huge icebergs, Le Cam having spotted around 10, an enormous whale completing the picture. Careful as they are being, their lead over Mike Golding (Ecover) and Sébastien Josse (VMI) has stretched out over the course of the day, though the English sailor has a 20 mile lead over VMI. Dominique Wavre (Temenos) is the first of the chasing group to have passed the Tasmanian gateway, Jean Pierre Dick (Virbac Paprec) hot on his heels with a startling average of 366.4 miles over the past 24 hours. He is only one of the entire 16-strong fleet to have racked up over 300 and his 20.4 knots of instantaneous speed epitomises the fighting spirit aboard the ‘powerless’ Virbac Paprec...
Jean Le Cam (Bonduelle) was uncharacteristically lucid in his comments at today’s radio session, anxiety tangible in his words. “I have seen icebergs and the bad news is that they are all over the place. The good news is that the visibility is good and the radar works well. I saw one which was 100 metres high. I’m now going left and right and haven’t got a clue what to do. I think I’ll be up on deck all night. The gauge that measures the temperature of the water is no help as the water reindexs the same temperature unless you’re really close. The first iceberg I saw was about 2 miles long with 2 little ones beside it. I haven’t seen any growlers but all in all I must have seen 10 icebergs and 1 huge whale, 5 meters from the boat last night. I should be in that iceberg area for another 5 hours, at least that’s what I hope. Fortunately there is not too much wind and the sea is calmer which helps me to stay on watch. The wind is now down to 16 knots.”
Vincent Riou (PRB) in second was clearly pleased to have a guide, even though he soon realised how widespread the danger zone actually was. “I have already had the iceberg information and we’re right into it. I wouldn’t want to be what Jean is and I hope I won’t be in the same situation in a few hours...” Unfortunately, this hope didn’t last long as he made his first sighting just before 1100 GMT, four miles to the east of 55 02S 177 37E, in a water temperature of 7.7°, with another spotted at 1300 GMT, 2.5 miles away at 130 degrees of the following position: 54 53S 177 49E in a water temperature of 8.1°C. “I’ve changed course to try and cut between the ice zone spotted by the New Zealand Rescue Centre and those spotted further south by Jean Le Cam. My radar is on and has been on for the past 2 days. I’ve got my binoculars out and will be spending the night on deck. It’s weird that the water temperature hasn’t changed though, especially just 4 miles from them. I’m in pretty good shape otherwise so it’s not a problem not to sleep for the next 48 hours. We’re going to stay slow and prudent. The night is clear and we have good visibility even in the darkness. I’ve got 20 knots of wind and not too much sail on. I just hope we don’t have this throughout the Pacific or we’ll have to go further north than we are.” With Jean making his first sighting four miles windward of the boat at 55 46 65S and 177 46 17E, it would seem that there is ice everywhere along 177 degrees East. The original report from the New Zealand Rescue Centre reported 15 icebergs further north, just to the east of Campbell Island. Jean’s sighting was further South of this zone and Vincent’s between the two. Clearly the more sightings that are reported the easier and, more importantly, safer it will be for the chasing pack.
Mike Golding (Ecover) will be the first to benefit from this information, even if he is physically tired. “According to the reports the ice is around 270 miles to the north-east of me, but that hasn’t affected my tactics. I’m making my choices as regards the weather but I think there is a good chance that there is ice all the way along this longitude. My radar works well though. I’m not tired through lack of sleep but I am physically tired. I’m still recovering from the trough in a depression which was painfully hard. My arms are aching and I need to rest but I’m mentally OK. I’m very happy with the boat and it’s looking like I should be in touch with the leaders when we pass Cape Horn. It did look bleak a few weeks ago but I’m capitalising on my gains now and seem to be approaching my game plan. It would be good if the four of us could race up the Atlantic together. VMI and I have made enormous inroads into the lead duo so I’m happy.”
Still sailing with wind on the nose for the foreseeable future, the chasing pack are hoping to reap the benefits of the much reduced pace up front, with 7 to 10 knot averages over the past 4 hours. Mid fleet from Virbac Paprec back to Max Havelaar Best Western are really on a roll with as much as 20.4 knots of instantaneous speed from the former, despite the power only being provided by the solar panels. VM Materiaux (Patrice Carpentier) is the only one to have an instantaneous speed under 10 knots but having broken his boom yesterday evening there is clearly good reason for this. Further back in the fleet, Conrad Humphreys (Hellomoto) reports trickier sailing conditions with wild wind shifts.
Quotes from the Boats:
Conrad Humphreys (Hellomoto):
"It’s quite tricky sailing, I gybed 5 times in the last 24 hours, just trying to stay in this patch of wind which seems to be funnelling between these two high pressure cells. You have to really feel the boat, know what angles to steer. I seem to have got a little corridor which has kept me going, although I made a mistake last night as the wind shifted into the South West and I gybed and took a southerly option knowing that perhaps the breeze was slightly stronger in the north. I’ve got 13 knots of breeze at the moment and doing a course of about 050 sailing at 9 - 10 knots. The only other news to report is that I am getting a bit smelly! I feel like I’ve been in a wheelchair for a month though, as I’ve hardly used my legs on the confines of this boat, I’m going to have to do some special exercises to keep up the lower body strength and stop my legs wasting away. However, these moderate conditions have allowed me to catch up on rest and I’m really in the groove in terms of my sleeping, eating, sailing pattern. I’m very focused and really enjoying the trip. I’ve had my fair share of obstacles so far, and I’m sure there’ll be a lot to come, but the fact that I have come through them has left a good lasting impression on me.”
Nick Moloney (Skandia):
“Just fixed the outhaul and lazyjack jammer, working through the job list. Just got a broken batten and the wind wand at the top of the mast to go. Also fixed my blast reacher, and still working on the Solent boot. Got a bit of sleep last night as I didn’t get any the two nights before...got about 5 hours last night, so that’s good!’ Also fixed the webcam, now I’m a computer expert as well! I’ve been attacking jobs two at a time, then stopping, eating, resting and then attacking the next ones. I’ll be going up (the rig/mast), just got to pick the right window. The sea state is quite messy and still got rain squalls. We’ve got another 3 windows (weather calmer) in the next few days to go up. I broke batten 3 in a crash gybe a couple of days ago. Its killing me as during my sleep I’m making all the repairs, then I wake up and realise that I haven’t done them! One of the weather models I’ve got this morning shows 50 knots upwind for the Sydney-Hobart fleet on the 28th, just carnage. If that eventuates I doubt they would start the race.”
Marc Thiercelin (Pro-Form):
“The weather’s ok, a nice sky, a nice day. Nick’s from around here so I’ll follow him, sailing down south. The gas is leaking so I’m losing a bit more everyday. I think I’ve got around 8 days left. The masthead has been a problem since the boat got knocked down and the mast is moving around like spaghetti. I’m looking for a solution as to how best to fix it. Maybe I’ll stop and go up the mast. I don’t know. I have to motivate myself. There’s not really a competition here.”
Patrice Carpentier (VM Matériaux):
"I was sailing under a 3 reefed index yesterday and there wasn´t much wind so I was really surprised to find that I had broken my boom. I didn´t spot it at first, I just noticed that my indexsail looked odd. I do hope to make repairs but the boom has broken right into two near the middle - perhaps I can join the two carbon pieces together - for now I have simply cut both parts so the ends are not jagged. I´m going to need to make a lot of northerly to get flatter seas to do the work as I´m currently on "a mountain which keeps moving". I don´t feel that confident in my abilities though I believe I have the tools to do the job. Even if I can get back into the race I won´t really be racing though and that´s really hard to swallow..."
Source : Vendée Globe 2004
www.vendeeglobe.org
Vendée Globe Press Office Tél. : +33 1 55 56 66 50 - Fax : +33 1 55 56 62 90 - @ : press@vendeeglobe.fr
French Media : Caroline Concetti, Anne Millet and Soazig Guého
International Media : Sabina Mollart-Rogerson, Ophélie Théron
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