Friday 16th January 2009
“THE HARDEST DAY OF THE VENDÉE GLOBE”
- A high pressure patch of oil…
- The way out at last.
- To each their worries.
“An anticyclone is an atmospheric zone which circulates around a centre of
high pressure. The direction in which it rotates is linked to the Coriolis
force: it rotates clockwise in the northern hemisphere and anti-clockwise in
the southern hemisphere”. Though it takes a few seconds to absorb the
definition of an anticyclone, it’s taken a matter of days to digest this
zone of oily high pressure which is continuing to stretch out across the
southern Atlantic. Indeed the progress of the leading duo has been severely
hampered. You slip along, you skid, you come to a halt so you can get going
in a better groove but your balance is shaky… it’s a rollercoaster ride. The
tentacles of the anticyclone have been teasing Salvador de Bahia at its
northern extremity (10° south) and Cape Horn along its southern edge (55°
south). It’s not a big phenomenon, it’s gigantic! Michel Desjoyeaux on his
60 foot monohull FONCIA hasn’t escaped the pitfall of this mass as it shifts
direction and alters shape as the hours go by. In fact, making any headway
at all has incurred a frenzy of tack changes. Salvation lies to the north.
The prevailing E’ly tradewinds are just alongside, just above this ‘shifting
sand’. “I have the feeling that yesterday was the hardest day of all in this
round the world” says Michel. “It’s the kind of odious day where you’re not
happy and not satisfied… I do think that I’m finally free of its clutches
though… Since 0500 hours this morning, I’ve finally got back on course…”.
We’re crossing our fingers. Another positive note is that Roland Jourdain’s
(Veolia Environnement) deficit has stabilised at 250 miles for the past
week, despite the differing courses and approaches. Explanations…
To each his course…
“I thought I’d escaped a couple of evenings ago, but instead I got hit by
repeated squalls… Some of them involved N/ NW’ly wind. You have no option
but to tack and then you wonder if it’ll last ten minutes or an hour. Should
you stack everything or not?… The cross seas and a slamming boat just add
insult to injury… All in all it’s far from easy. It’s a real mess! It was
exhausting because you never knew whether what you were doing was good or
not… You could never be flat out. You saw a big grey zone dropping in on you
and there was nothing you could do. You ended up smacking into it and you
just had to put up with it… You weren’t making headway, the boat was
slamming, it was tiresome”… Michel further stresses the intensity of the
situation: “You really have to ask yourself if it’s not the worst day of the
circumnavigation!” And when asked about the reason he has taken this course
punctuated by tack changes, he explains: “The problem is that when you make
easting, you are effectively making headway at 90° to the course so your VMG
is poor. However, you gain loyalty points with the wind which is further to
the east. And if you try to cut the corner as you make northing, you end up
sailing with a NE’ly wind since you’re at the end of the curve of the
anticyclone. In fact, I think I wanted to be a bit too greedy… All of a
sudden, I found myself a little too close to the coast, which meant I had to
endure a few more squalls that were skulking around that area, which were a
real bind. And if you don’t react in the squalls, you find yourself on a
heading of 300° and you end up in Copacabana… That’s not on the programme!”
It’s clearly not been easy for Michel to negotiate his way around this zone
then. The skipper has been forced to make northing by sailing close on the
wind in order to try to extract himself from this area, which has been
disrupting the prevailing E’ly tradewinds. Making headway close on the wind
is far from restful: stacking gear down below and shifting it across to the
other side, taking care of the filling and emptying of ballast tanks,
preparing the leeward runner, preparing the lazy jack on the headsail,
canting the keel into the centre, preparing the indexsail traveller, thinking
about the windward rudder, dropping the windward daggerboard, tacking,
easing the headsail, hauling it on again on the other tack, raising the
opposite daggerboard, canting the keel… In short, a good thirty or so
manœuvres and points to be respected; something that Michel has done a
number of times so as to try to claw back a few precious degrees of
northing. Backbreaking stuff… “Yet Bilou considered that I wasn’t going very
fast and wondered if I had a problem… In reality, whilst he was making
repairs, I was becalmed, attempting to make headway. He can’t have looked at
the charts… or he’d have seen that I didn’t have any air (laughs)!”.
To each his reward…
“I’ve finally got back on course since 0500 hours this morning… Right now
I’m sailing full and by at 10.5 knots. In principle I’m clear of the zone
now, unless some more washing machines land on top of me! We’ll get as far
as Salvador de Bahia tomorrow and late on the 19th we’ll reach the Doldrums.
Just now the seas are becoming calmer… but we were still wave jumping till
last night. It was shaking the boat about so much you couldn’t stand up”. On
a course of 4°, Michel was sailing along the Brazilian coast at 10 knots at
the 1100 hours ranking. He’ll round the tip of All Saints’ Bay prior to
slipping along past Recife, where he’s likely to almost smell the aromas of
the tip of Brazil. It’s a course he knows well having set off from there
just a few months ago in the Transat B to B. As regards Bilou’s position and
its possible advantages, Michel explains: “As he had more E’ly wind than me,
he managed to get some separation and all of a sudden he should have an
identical angle to mine, virtually at the same time as me… As such, in
principle, the separation between us should reindex stable at around 250
miles. As I said before the Horn: this area as far as Cabo Frio could be the
most complicated zone in this Vendée Globe in terms of strategy. Indeed,
that’s just what’s happening… even though I reckon I’ve not done too badly.
It was just the last bit, working my way around the edge of the anticyclone
which wasn’t easy…” There is hope over the coming hours however. If FONCIA
manages to hold onto her N’ly heading whilst slipping a little easting into
it, Michel will certainly be free of this high pressure quagmire. In
addition it is interesting to note the differences in heading at the
mid-morning ranking between the two leaders, with “Bilou” heading to the NW
(335°), whilst FONCIA was continuing to make northing. These few degrees of
difference are certainly worthwhile with the prospect of rounding the horn
of Brazil looming.
To each his troubles…
Though Bilou has been busily repairing damage to his mast bulkhead, Michel
has not been spared of technical worries either. Knowing how to handle a
toolbox is unquestionably one of the keys to success in this extraordinary
race. Back in his electrician’s garb, Michel has had his screwdriver out,
like a number of other skippers. Today a battery problem has been resolved,
which could have been a handicap for the next stage in the race, not to
mention an ongoing issue with his satellite aerial. “I had to change some
elements of one of the battery installations which were weak. I have the
advantage that I have them in individual units on board. When there’s one
faulty one on the four strips of 12 elements, you remove the problem one and
you switch it for one that works. When you have batteries cast in one piece,
you can’t do that. If there’s a fragile element, your whole battery is up
the spout… In this case I was able to reconstitute an entire battery
installation by replacing the faulty elements. I must have been drawing on
the batteries too much at times, which resulted in my damaging a few
elements. For the past two days I’ve just been using the automatic pilot and
the navigation instruments. I’m being careful but it’ll hold out till the
end of this round the world.” As regards the Fleet (satellite aerial which
is used to transfer big computer files via Internet), Michel explains: “I’ve
tried everything to repair it… I’ve even reinstalled the system, but there’s
nothing that can be done. As such, I’m getting my weather files via Iridium
twice a day, which works very well. One area I won’t suffer though is on the
satellite photos as I have a direct receiver. The other day I ended up with
screws every which way. What a sight! Suddenly I find myself unable to send
video footage and that’s a real shame as I’ve some sumptuous sunsets. I can
only send low resolution photos. All in all though, the boat is going well.
I’m pleasantly surprised about her current state when I see the conditions
she’s had to endure and the weather we’ve had…”
Has the bluff calling finally finished? It’s very hard to say even though
FONCIA seems to be clear of the high pressure quagmire. The next obstacle
involves rounding the tip of Brazil this weekend, not to mention the
Doldrums, which is shaping up for the middle of next week. A new race will
begin there… once again!
Additional quotes from Michel:
Leisure, not really?... “The Rubik’s cube is still in its bag. When I see
I’m finding it hard to do Sudoku grids, I leave it to one side… In fact, I’m
spending a lot of time on watch ready to react.”
Desert… “I saw a flying fishing on deck two days a go and nothing since
then… And yet you hear them slamming into the hull when they’re about… Not a
sound at the moment though. There aren’t many birds either… Maybe they don’t
like squally weather either (laughs)”
Future Atlantic… “I haven’t really looked at the North Atlantic… I got a ten
day file the other day and then, when I saw what a mess it was I closed the
book again. There’s a right time for everything… The Azores High has
stretched itself out diagonally so it’s not in its usual position. We’ll
just have to see what happens”.
Work… “The jobs’ list has already gone ashore and we’re already beginning to
tackle the modifications and improvements to the boat. It’s the shore crew
who asked me what work there was to do. They said to me: “we imagine you
must have prepared something for us, can you let us know what it is?” As a
result I’ve sent them the list of things that need doing…”
Ranking on 16/01/2009 at 1430 GMT
1 – Michel Desjoyeaux (FONCIA) 4,206.2 miles from the finish
2 - Roland Jourdain (Veolia Environnement) 294.2 miles from the leader
3 – Armel Le Cléac’h (Brit Air) 710.7 miles
4 – Sam Davies (Roxy) 1,633.8 miles
5 – Marc Guillemot (Safran) 1,957.3 miles
Translated by Kate Jennings – Expression
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