Friday 7th December 2007
Dear all,
Please find today’s report from Michele and Dominique aboard Temenos.
There is also today's press release on the English and French sites of the
Transat Ecover BtoB and the promised Press Pack for Groupama III's was completed
very early this morning and is accessible from that site.
Kind regards, Kate
Michèle’s Account
Still subject to a steady, established N’ly in excess of 25 knots for the
frontrunners, the fleet is continuing to dive down into the roaring forties in
building seas. A new record for the greatest distance covered in 24 hours, (set
as 492 miles and currently awaiting ratification) has just gone to Alex
Thomson's formidable boat.
After this news, Dominique signalled in the early hours of this morning that
they had hit a floating object last night and Michèle gave us further details
about the incident at noon. Though the impact doesn’t seem to have affected the
integrity of the rudder, an initial analysis which still needs to be confirmed,
the incident has had some consequences aboard Temenos II.
“I was on watch on deck and Dominique had just got into his bunk, when I heard a
loud noise and immediately felt something hit the port rudder. I quickly got out
the torch to have a look. It was still night, but I could see a big dark zone
without being able to make out if it was a piece of rudder that was missing, or
if there was still something hooked onto it. I quickly went down below to get
Dominique.
Inside in these kinds of conditions there is always an infernal
racket and half asleep he had heard the noise but didn't realise straightaway.
He thought it was the sound of a winch.
It felt like we were dragging a piece of broken rudder behind us. We decided to
drop the gennaker so as not to risk any further damage on the boat. However the
sail refused to be furled in. We've been having problems with it for several
days already but yesterday it was really extreme. We think it is down to poor
pre-stressing level with the stay, but the conditions over these past few days
have not enabled us to get on deck to try and resolve the problem.
We managed to drop the sail and put it in the sail locker at the front of the
boat, but we really struggled on deck. During these moments you must give it
your all if you want to recuperate hundreds of square metres of loose material
which is flogging in the wind. It's right on the extreme this kind of manœuvre
and there’s always a big risk that you will get carried away with the sail if a
gust or a big wave catches up with you. And on the other side, you have to avoid
ending up in the water at all costs, otherwise there is little chance you can be
recuperated and in that case you're often forced to cut everything away.
When you are in a crew, it’s not a problem because there are enough hands to
recuperate the canvas, but in double-handed configuration, two of our four hands
are busy gently easing the halyard so you're not very efficient.
Once under indexsail alone, we sent the boat into reverse and fortunately the
rudder was freed in a single move.”
The gennaker which is refusing to be rolled in is no less than 300 square metres
of material to be dropped in 25 knots, on the deck of a boat regularly swept by
the waves, a situation that we can imagine is already sufficiently stressful
without adding more to it, and yet: “I was in the sail locker in the process of
stowing the material gradually, whilst Dominique struggled to drop the rest of
the gennaker and when I poked my head out again to take another fold of
material, I couldn't see Dominique anymore. I yelled his name three times
without reply in the pitch black night with 25 knots of wind. It was an absolute
nightmare and I immediately feared the worse. The time it took to turn my head
he had reappeared on the other side and with the noise of the wind and the sail
flogging he hadn't heard. I've certainly had my share of emotion for a while.”
And we can well imagine the flood of emotion that invades your mind at those
times, particularly when your co-skipper is also your life partner. Michèle
recognised this, “it’s unavoidable. You’re constantly in fear that something
will happen to the other, though this is felt to a considerably lesser degree
with another crew."
At noon the tension from the night had eased and we could sense slight a
disappointment in the voice of the sailor, who had expected to lose some ground
on the whole fleet. “At the time we were positive about it, saying to ourselves
that it was lucky that the rudder hadn't broken on impact, and that we could
very easily be in the process of changing a rudder at that time. Of course
though, when you see the speed of the boat drop, it makes you angry. We will be
penalised for a few more hours yet, until the wind increases a little.”
Whilst waiting for the conditions to enable the two co-skippers to lean their
monohull over even more upwind, so they can get a full view of the rudder and
give it a more thorough examination, Michèle and Dominique have immediately set
Temenos II going again. Given the two good hours lost on various manœuvres and
the now under-powered boat, Temenos II can no longer attain the same averages as
yesterday. However the situation could come good thanks to the arrival of a
depression over the fleet from tomorrow. The strong wind then forecast should
enable the monohull to carry the right sail again.
As regards the gennaker, though the sail is out of use for the time being, this
should only be the case temporarily. Once they have good calm conditions, the
tandem should be able to get the sail out on deck again and roll it in little by
little. Given that the duo is currently in the roaring 40's right now though, it
may be a little while yet...
--
Kate Jennings
Expression.
P.O. Box 26,
Dartmouth,
DEVON.
TQ6 0YG
United Kingdom
+44 (0)7795 116699
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