Positionstabelle
05.01.2005
05.01.2005
VG DAY 60: BANG, THE WIND KICKED IN AT 50 KNOTS, BACK TO SURVIVAL MODE
Sail 4 Cancer is the official charity of the Skandia Set Sail programme. Through Nick’s own personal challenge on the Vendée Globe, he is hoping to raise through your efforts £1 for every 1km sailed – 42,000 in total! If you would like to help visit : www.sail4cancer.org/vendee
RACE POSITIONS 0930 GMT: SKANDIA 7th, holding off Arcelor (8th) at over 500 miles despite the light and difficult conditions of past three days. BONDUELLE, PRB, and ECOVER battling it out in the south Atlantic, 3500 miles to the Equator, and less than 100 miles between 1st and 3rd, the closes Golding has been to the lead since November...
Quote of the day from Nick:
‘I gotta get out of here, it's so windy it's unbeliveable...I thought I was going to break the rig’
RACE UPDATE DAY GOING IN TO 60th DAY
FROM 10 TO 50 KNOTS, AND IN TO SURVIVAL MODE: The waiting game ended very abruptly for Nick an hour ago...light winds gave way to hard core conditions as freezing cold air from the south west rushed in. A case of a virgin deep Southern Ocean storm changing Nick’s world in a matter of minutes, sending him in to survival mode. indexsail down on the boom, only the staysail up and still doing 14 knots. Preservation of boat and skipper at the top of the list of priorities. Read transcript below of conversation with OC Mission Control just over an hour ago...
SKANDIA HAD BEEN WAITING FOR NEW DEPRESSION TO PASS: The new low pressure system forming right on Nick’s hip had been promised for a few days now – light and variable winds on one side, but not the other. Its certainly evolving fast, as Ellen MacArthur can attest to – she has spent 3 days on the other (south western) side of this depression, 3 days of constantly changing winds, from 6 to 46 knots with 50 to 60 degrees shifts in direction. Skandia of course is her old boat ‘Kingfisher’, and Nick is of course part of the same Sailing Team as Ellen. For now they are 400 miles apart on the ocean, and opposite sides of a depression which should eventually carry both of them a good distance towards the exit of the frozen wastelands of the Southern Ocean, Cape Horn. Neither skipper will be sad to see the end of the Southern Ocean – its wearing, tearing and exhausting, day after day of cold, mostly grey or black skies, and rarely stable winds.
IT’S ANYONE’S RACE AT THE FRONT: Golding (ECOVER) recorded the best time across the Southern Ocean from Cape of Good Hope to Cape Horn – just over 31 days, some 4 days faster than the race record. And right now he is under 100 miles from the race leader BONDUELLE, for the first time since the first week of the race, nearly two months ago...the leading trio are sailing upwind in 10 to 15 knots of wind, sailing to the south of the Falkland Islands.
ANOTHER 2,600 MILES BACK FROM SKANDIA:
Karen Leibovici (BENEFIC) sailing in light headwinds, holding up the back of the fleet – she will soon enter the Pacific Ocean, just approaching the longitude of Tasmania. Benoit Parnadeau, 1500 miles ahead of Karen is on a southerly ice-spotting course that is the furthest south of the entire fleet.
EXCERPTS FROM SHORT CALL FROM NICK: thanks to BT Business Broadband
To listen to full audio : http://www.ocftp2.com/audio/vendee2004/nm050104a_uk_e.wav
I have just got the indexsail down in 50 kts of wind, just spent an hour beelining it
north - just working out how the **** to gybe in the shift, and I am so annoyed, i was waiting for a lull, cos it was going down to 35 and I had 3 reefs and staysail already i am thinking****** hell, I never got the lull [in the centre of the depression] and it was just 40-45 knots all the time and I thought gotta get it [indexsail] down, I just pulled it down, luckily it came down alright, the staysail halyard slipped and the headstay slipped, and the
thing was pumping its face off and I thought I was going to break the rig.
[IS EVERYTHING Stable NOW?] yeah everything is lashed down and settled, staysail and no index,
[WHAT SORT OF BOATSPEED DOES THAT GIVE YOU?] Fourteen.... it depends in the lulls between the squalls it is 10,
I gotta get out of here, it's so windy it's unbeliveable!
[ITS COLD AIR TOO SO THAT MAKES IT STRONGER] yeah that's right, the seastate is good though not rough
at all...I gotta go and get some sleep, no radio vacation for me, I gotta sleep... see ya..bye....
OC SAILING TEAM UPDATE:
Nick’s team mate ELLEN is now his closest boat on the water, totally exhausted, but holding nearly 3 days lead on the record, more at http://www.teamellen.com
SKANDIA DATA LOG 0930 GMT: data brought to you by BT Business Broadband, transmitted via Thrane&Thrane
LAT/LONG: 47 45 S / 136 56 W – not far from half way across the Pacific stretch of the Southern Ocean!
WIND: 10 knots from the west
POSITIONS 1000 GMT 5th JANUARY 2005
BOAT / LAT / LONG / distance to finish
1. BONDUELLE, 53 03.92' S / 57 07.88' W, 6660.3 distance to finish
2. PRB, 53 24.44' S / 58 45.56' W, 6710.2 distance to finish
3. ECOVER, 54 11.72' S / 58 59.56' W, 6753.7 distance to finish
7. SKANDIA, 47 45.80' S / 136 56.68' W, 9531.7 distance to finish
For full positions report go to http://www.nickmoloney.com and follow the positions link
PARTNER OF THE DAY : MARLOW ROPES
Official Rope Supplier to Nick and the Offshore Challenges Sailing Team
http://www.nickmoloney.com/marlow
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For more information visit http://www.nickmoloney.com or contact :
Helen King
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* For further information contact http://www.skandiasetsail.com
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