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Press Release N° 20
Paris, Wednesday 9th February 2005
JULES VERNE TROPHY 2005
ORANGE II TRYING TO MAKE headWAY EAST
The giant Orange II is likely to give up a few miles to her virtual opponents today, because of the westerly flow they are in, which is forcing them to tack between 45° and 50° South. After passing the Prince Edward Islands early this morning, the boat is continuing to cross the Indian Ocean heading towards the Kerguelens, squeezed between the light winds in the north and icebergs further south. In spite of this, her average speed over 24 hours is still close to 20 knots. At 10.00 GMT this morning, at the end of the sixteenth day of racing, Bruno Peyron's crew had covered 8643 miles since the start, and increased the lead over the round the world record time (+ 1860 miles ahead of Steve Fossett's record time).
Contacted this lunchtime for the radio link-up, which could be followed live on Internet and on 3G Orange mobiles, the skipper of Orange II talked about life on board during this awesome crossing of the hostile Indian Ocean. In particular, he announced that the boat's radar had broken down, and that this was a real problem now that they were on iceberg alert.
The world live on Orange mobile phones thanks to 3G technology: Before the link-up with the boat, Julien Billot, Director of marketing for Orange for the general public and businesses, expressed the desire of the group to make use of 3G technology to enable as many people as possible to share in the exploits of Bruno Peyron and his crew during their attempt at the world record. Thus, owners of Orange mobile handsets can receive live and recorded pictures via satellite from the other side of the planet.
Here are some extracts from the radio session with the skipper of Orange II :
The weather and radar no longer functioning: The weather is magnificent, and certainly does not reflect the tension of the last few days, as we've been used to sailing in grey conditions in these latitudes. We're in a mousetrap, blocked by calms and ice. A high-pressure ridge is arriving from the north. We adopted a rather conservative strategy concerning the icebergs. While there is ice to our south, we only head back down during daylight hours. We can tell you now. We no longer have any radar. There's no way we're going to play Russian roulette. We gybed, when we saw the fifth iceberg. At night, we head back up. An iceberg is beautiful to see. It's nice to see them when you're in an exploration ship, but not aboard a carbon monster travelling at 30 knots. I can understand why people are fascinated by this beauty, but it's better for us to get away from there. We're not really welcome here.
Icebergs : our trajectory took us down on the closest curve possible to the direct route. We gybed 3-4 hours earlier than planned. Just as well, as we would have found ourselves on the other side of the "mine-field." The sea temperature has fallen to 5°. We saw during the Vendée Globe that there can be some further north. We must reindex cautious, sensible and act responsibly, as we're always tempted to take the shortest route. If we have to lose a dozen or twenty hours for safety reasons, I'll accept that..
How to spot the icebergs : they can be seen with the naked eye during the day, when there is decent visibility (this morning, we couldn't even see the bow of the boat!) or with the help of electronic devices. We have a third way of spotting them : infrared binoculars. We put a man on watch at the bow. As the radar is no longer working, we're down to this watch, like in the old days.
The lead over Cheyenne and Geronimo : we know our lead precisely. We have a lead of just under four days over Fossett. Over the past day, he won back a few miles. Our aim is to get out of this tricky area to the Kerguelens with between three and three and a half days lead with a boat and crew in fine fettle. The weather ahead should enable us to benefit from a north westerly flow to go on the attack!
Reindexing sensible: It doesn't bother me to ease off on the speed, when we need to, in order to put on more speed later, when conditions allow. You need to keep your wits about you to take the necessary decisions. The difficulty is when you drop behind and you don't have the intellectual faculty to take the right decisions.
Log: We use a computer on the navigation table. Roger Nilson, as our navigator, notes everything down. That's not a legal requirement, but for our own use. It's a way of remembering everything that happened on board. There are things you tend to forget over such a long journey. When we re-read it later, we realise there are things that we didn't pay enough attention to at the time. Roger is very technical. He writes a more factual log. I've got an exercise book in which I note down other information.
Ellen MacArthur : We keenly followed the Vendée Globe and her record. It's only half a surprise, as it's not the first time she has done something amazing.
Rest: The last ten minutes have been the first time that we've had such sea conditions and are making less than 25-30 knots. We hadn't seen that since coming out of the Doldrums. I hope that will remove some of the stress from the minds of the crew. For the moment, the boat is in perfect condition. We check her over at the end of each watch, or in other words every 4 hours. We're going to take advantage of this calm zone to stop. We're going to lower the sails and send the bowman up the mast to check everything over.
Icebergs and the strategy ahead: We're really frightened of icebergs. We know they are not far off. We hoped we had a wide enough margin to avoid them, but there they are. We're in a tricky situation with the ice and the calms. That means we shall be losing some time, but not over the record. The wind is easing off sooner than forecast. That means we should be able to head off to the right, but we can't, because it's dark.
Performance: We're the first to be surprised by our performance. We did what we could. The crew have worked like mad since the start. We were on the attack until yesterday. Since yesterday morning, we've adopted a more conservative approach. That will last for two days. Our next attack will be with the next front.
Playing with the weather: In 93 during the first Jules Verne, we were the first boat to play yo-yo with the weather systems in the deep south. Last summer, we left behind one system, caught a low, got through it and reached England before the winds. If we had left later from New York, we would have arrived with the winds. Orange II is a time machine. It's amazing!
Peter Blake : During the first Jules Verne, the people I thought about were those, who preceded us in the 19th Century at the time of the clippers. During the Cape Horn storm in 1993, we complained about the cold, but we forgot what it was like there 100 or 150 years earlier. This Jules Verne story, I shared it with Peter Blake. He is no longer there, and from time to time, we tip our hats to him. There are times, when we would have liked him to be at our side in the same boat going along at 35 knots.
Data :
Day at sea: 16th
Date : 09/02/2005
Time (GMT) : 10h00
Latitude : 48 09.08' S
Longitude : 40 39.40' E
Recorded speed: 17.4 knots
Recorded bearing: 40
Average speed: 16.2 knots
Speed over 24 h: 20.7 knots
Distance over 24h : 497 miles
Speed since the start : 22.5 knots
Total distance : 8643 miles
Reindexing distance : 16339.50 miles
Lead on day 16:
- J. Verne record: +1680 miles (ahead)
- absolute record: +1860 miles (ahead)
Internet : http://www.maxicatamaran-orange.com
Radio sessions: Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 1.15 p.m. GMT at Orange race headquarters and live on Internet. Wednesday's broadcast will be a live video link on Internet and on Orange mobile handsets.
PC Course Orange : Fédération Française de Voile
17, rue Henri Bocquillon
75015 PARIS
(Métro Boucicaut)
Audio: Apart from the radio session three times a week, an audio recording is made every morning at 5 a.m. with the boat.
These recordings can be heard and downloaded in MP3 format in the press section of the website: www.maxicatamaran-orange.com
For any individual requests, please contact Bénédicte Etienne on 06 87 30 12 83
Boat's positions:
The position of the boat is updated every quarter of an hour on the website : www.maxicatamaran-orange.com
Ice on the right and calms on the left
After spotting their first icebergs on Tuesday afternoon, the crew of the maxi-cat Orange II has turned northeastwards to stay on the northern edge of the dangerous ice zone. "Sailing on a tightrope. We have to avoid the calms on our left and the ice on our right," Bruno Peyron admitted during his radio link-up. At 04.00 this morning, Bruno Peyron and his men were passing 7 miles off Marion Island, a small volcanic island 19km long and 12 km wide, whose highest crater reaches 1230 m. Swept by the strong winds in the Roaring Forties, the island, which belongs to South Africa, is populated by families of penguins, petrels, albatrosses, cormorants and other species specific to these latitudes. However, the crew hardly had the time to study the island through the early morning drizzle. Just after passing this island, Orange II should be gybing again towards the north east to get out of this inhospitable area and get in position for the next low. After being slowed down a little late yesterday afternoon, the maxi-cat has picked up speed again. The crazy pace means that they are extremely busy with tiring manoeuvres and have to be particularly cautious.
Bruno Peyron said at 4 this morning, "We’re in the usual series of low-pressure areas. We’re between two lows, in a narrow zone, where we have to avoid the calms on the left, which are caused by a ridge of high pressure, which is building, and the ice on the right. We’re waiting for the next low and trying to get in the best latitude. You have to be able to slow down sometimes to accelerate away later, so for the moment, this is offering some relief to the boat and the crew. You can see the tiredness. So you need to be sensible about that and adjust the boat accordingly. We’re not far from the Fifties South. This is the sort of place you don’t want to hang around in. It’s a hostile universe, where everything is grey, mist and drizzle, and even the sea is grey too. Because of the ice, we’re going to have to prolong the route somewhat by heading a bit further north. The seas coming on the beam are not favourable to high speeds, but if we manage 450 miles, that will be a good average. We will be able to step up the speed later..."
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