25/11/08
“It’s heeling, slamming and wet!”
The weather situation in the southern Atlantic, which the leading solo
sailors are unanimously describing as complicated and confused, has not yet
let all its secrets out of the bag. However, with every satellite animation,
a trend is being confirmed: at the tail end of November, the zone of high
pressure has settled in for the duration and is likely to force the leaders
to adopt a route taking them away from the shortest course, prior to
starting to hang a big left towards the Cape of Good Hope and the Southern
Seas. So today’s source of irritation stems from the fact that this scenario
won’t necessarily be the same for all the protagonists in this Vendée Globe
2008-2009… At the head of the fleet the monohull equipped by Baron Benjamin
de Rothschild is taking the knocks from a decidedly agitated sea and still
has a slight cushion of a lead over his loyal adversary, Sébastien Josse’s
60 footer, at the 1600 hour ranking. Of note is the fact that Armel Le
Cléac’h is now up to third to the detriment of Jean-Pierre Dick.
“Last night, there were storm squalls everywhere… as a result of a small
neighbouring cold front!” This situation has not prevented Loïck Peyron from
getting the very most out of his steed though. Indeed, at today’s first
ranking – that of 0500 hours -, the skipper of Gitana Eighty had again
clawed back some precious miles from his closest rivals. Six hours later, it
was another position report and another tone, since his pursuers, and
Sébastien Josse in particular, had snatched back the miles they conceded
overnight. In short, though the hierarchy reindexs virtually unchanged in the
leading group, with the exception of the arrival of Brit Air in the top 3,
the deficits shrink and stretch at the mercy of the courses they each
choose. This isn’t really very surprising given that the conditions
encountered seem to differ with just a few tens of miles of separation!
At midday, the monohull in the colours of the LCF Rothschild Group was
benefiting from a clearer horizon but was still suffering from cross seas,
which the ship’s captain would willingly change: “The wind is still
fluctuating just as much as before in terms of strength, but the squalls are
gradually giving way to greyish skies. I haven’t got sunshine yet, far from
it, but we may well be heading towards a clearer spell” explained Loïck
Peyron, before describing the state of the “playing field”: “For the past 24
hours, the sea really hasn’t been very kind to us. On the nose and crossed…
the seas are making life aboard complicated. You constantly have to hang on
and watch every move you make in the boat. The current sea state isn’t as
big or as powerful as that which we encountered in the Bay of Biscay during
the storm of the first hours of racing, but it is considerably more
unpleasant. It’s heeling, slamming and wet!”
In these conditions, the 60 foot monohull becomes an immense resonance
chamber, with a constant mix of the sounds of the hull slipping through the
water and of the waves impacting; a noisy atmosphere in which the skipper of
Gitana Eighty didn’t hide his difficulties in getting off to sleep: “The
past 24 hours certainly haven’t inspired me to take any long siestas in my
bunk. However, that’s not such a bad thing as the numerous shifts in the
wind require my presence on deck, which would leave me little time to sleep
anyway.”
But why such a meteorological brain-teaser?
The direct course, also known as the great circle route, would require the
solo sailors to make a course of 120 (ESE), whilst currently the instruments
are indicating values of between 167 and 191° (S). To make it simple, the
weather is forcing the competitors leading the Vendée Globe 2008-2009 to
fend off the Saint Helena High by going right around the outside. Positioned
to the south of the ‘group of nine’ for the time being, the zone of high
pressure is heading slowly eastwards. As such, those who might be tempted to
get too much easting in their course might well get their fingers burnt in
the high pressure of the phenomenon; a misfortune synonymous with light
winds and long hours or even days becalmed. Faced with this situation, Loïck
Peyron and his rivals have no choice but to drop due south as they wait for
the opportunity to be able to hit the unsettled W’ly air flow from the lows
of the southern hemisphere and are finally able to make headway to the east:
“We have a real barrier in front of us! For the time being, we don’t have
any choice. We’re all set for the big loop but you still have to keep a
constant eye on the zone of high pressure and respond quickly should the
latter end up being milder!” After 16 days of racing with daggers drawn,
this sentence bears witness to the continued lucidity of Loïck Peyron, which
will be paramount in negotiating this tricky section.
Ranking on Tuesday 25th November – 1600 hours (French time)
1. Gitana Eighty (Loïck Peyron) 20,263 miles from the finish
2. BT (Sébastien Josse) 13 miles from the leader
3. Brit Air (Armel Le Cléac’h) 43.7 miles
4. Paprec Virbac (Jean-Pierre Dick) 45.7 miles
5. PRB (Vincent Riou) 52.1 miles
...
Translated by Kate Jennings – Expression
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