Friday 23rd January 2009
“Next obstacle: the calms of the Azores…”
- The split of all splits…
- An understanding Azores High!
- A monotonous climb for now
20/25 knots of E/ NE’ly wind, 30 knot gusts in the squalls, FONCIA is making
10 knots VMG (Velocity Made Good or the closing speed in relation to the
goal), and teasing over 20 knots at peak speed. The tradewinds of the
northern hemisphere are distilling their powerful, if rather erratic breeze,
and Michel Desjoyeaux is greedily devouring the miles; irreparably
increasing his lead over Roland Jourdain (Veolia Environnement), hour after
hour, ranking after ranking. The Doldrums has performed its role as Justice
of the Peace and though FONCIA was considerably slowed at the start of the
week, seeing her lead melt some 150 miles over the red boat, the tollgate
liberated Michel on Tuesday 21st January, whilst retaining its hold on
Roland in this meteorological no-go area. The satellite photos reveal the
secret of the clouds and Michel clearly illustrates the situation: “The blue
cross is FONCIA, the red cross is Bilou. The green zone: the Doldrums. You
can see that in principle Veolia is finally clear of it. The yellow ellipse
spans 800 miles from East to West. To the East, the islands of Cape Verde,
to the West, me. You can clearly see the whirlwinds alternating in the wake
of the islands in the tradewind sky. The disturbed conditions I had this
morning and last night are most certainly due to these landforms, despite
the fact they’re so far away”. It’s magical to see this satellite image
being commented on live by Michel. The explanation is as clear as the
relatively stationary position of the Azores High, which will be the next
crossroads to negotiate before switching to a direct course towards Les
Sables d’Olonne. Les Sables d’Olonne: a name which resonates and that we
evoke for the first time since Michel’s restart on 11th November at 0600
hours in the morning, 41 hours after the fleet… At that point he had a
deficit of 350 miles, which had stretched to 670 miles a few days later. The
story is still running.
Peak speeds of 22 knots…
“Yesterday evening, prior to pulling on my pyjamas and going to bed, I
furled in the staysail and set the small jib and it blew all night long.
During the course of yesterday, there was 18 to 25 knots. Within the weather
systems, things went quite smoothly under staysail. During the night though,
I had up to 32 knots in the squalls. As such everything went very well! It
was perfect! It enabled me to get some sleep…” On the current menu the wind
and the sea is on the beam, interspersed by squalls. Black clouds are
cluttering up the seascape and the sky reindexs “very grey all over”
according to Michel. “Right now I have 25/30 knots of E/NE’ly and the seas
are much more orderly than yesterday. I’m making 15 to 22 knots of boat
speed and I’m on a course of 345°, bound for the western edge of the centre
of the Azores High”. Michel then takes on the voice of an airline pilot
addressing his passengers: “We’re expecting a zone of high pressure on the
evening of the 25th, or maybe the morning of the 26th. At this point you’ll
be able to enjoy a light snack”. He laughs at this as the next obstacle does
indeed consist of getting around an anticyclone, but there would appear to
be more than one of these in his path before he can make a direct course
towards metropolitan France! Explanations…
An understanding anticyclone…
“If we were arriving on zone today, this wouldn’t be as simple. By the time
we get there though it will have reformed into a single cell and that will
enable us to get around its western edge. The winds will be gentle, though
it will be fairly stable. The models are fairly clear. It’s quite a stable
situation and not too complicated”. In fact, it’s a simple problem: it’ll be
necessary to skirt the centre of the anticyclone without falling into its
calm conditions, whilst avoiding getting too far from it and hence
increasing the number of miles you have to sail. It’s both simple and
complicated at the same time and surgical precision will be much in demand.
Michel explains: “If you get too close to the centre of the zone, you will
experience a rapid wind rotation but the wind will be gentle so you won’t be
able to make headway. And if you get too far from the centre, the rotation
will be slow and you’ll have to make a huge amount of headway around the
centre to get to the wind rotation and the wind shift, which will enable you
to switch across to the other tack. You’ll have steadier wind but you’ll
have to cover more miles. To put it plainly, you calculate a bit of that
with the computer means you have aboard and you use your nose when you’re on
the water. You tell yourself that that’s not rotating very quickly, I’ll
shift across a bit or the contrary of that… In principle we’re not doing too
badly as the anticyclone here is being beefed up by the arrival of cold air.
You could say it’s a young anticyclone so we’ll be able to keep our feet on
the ground as we make our way around it”. Everything looks clear and as
such, the verdict is announced: “When I reach the Azores I should have a
lead of 700 miles over Veolia, 2,400 miles from the finish”…
Awaiting the Azores...
And though FONCIA is wolfing down the miles, Michel admits: “This point of a
sail is a bit monotonous… It’s been like this for three days and I’ve got
more of the same for a further two days. I admit that I haven’t got much to
do with my time… I’m not going outside much as it’s too wet to go and work…
The indexsail halyard was grey originally and right now it’s green. There are
also several places where there’s seaweed in the cockpit. It’s never dried…
Seaweed on the transom is par for the course but I’ve never seen it in the
cockpit before. As a result I’m doing my Sudoku puzzles down below, sleeping
and eating… I’ll be as fat as a piece of Turkish delight on my arrival”.
With a boat in good shape and a comfortable lead under construction, Michel
doesn’t disguise the fact that there is expected to be an initial reduction
in pace due to the anticyclone. With a little work on deck to do, a desire
to get back into some cooler air outside and benefit from some good sessions
at the helm, life confined to the pouffe within reach of the telephone and
the seat of his interior pod with a view of his computer screen: it’s clear
that Michel is keen to switch to something else. He picks up the
conversation again: “I saw there have been storms in France. I saw the
arrows indicating 50 knots of wind… It’s the first time I’ve seen that
throughout my entire circumnavigation of the globe! That caps it all doesn’t
it?... Seriously I have no recollection of having seen 50 knots in the
South; maybe once or twice but they were outside my trajectory. Right now
it’s across my trajectory”. It really is quite something given that the
skipper of FONCIA has devoured over 24,000 miles around the globe!
And given that everyone knows that a race isn’t won until the finish line is
crossed, it’s impossible to speak of an ETA. Instead Michel replies: “I’m in
phase with Race Management”. In other words, according to the latest
estimates by Météo France at the 0900 hour position report on 23rd January,
FONCIA is set to finish between Saturday 31st January at 0000 hours UT and
Monday 2nd February at 0000 hours UT. Michel expands on this as he rounds
off the discussion: “Once I’ve positioned myself along the northern edge of
the anticyclone, I’ll be 4 days from the finish, doctor… As such my
diagnosis may be fined down to around half a day.”
Ranking on 23/01/2009 at 1430 GMT
1 – Michel Desjoyeaux (FONCIA) 2,480.0 miles from the finish
2 - Roland Jourdain (Veolia Environnement) 539.8 miles from the leader
3 – Armel Le Cléac’h (Brit Air) 1,044.3 miles
4 – Marc Guillemot (Safran) 1,992.6 miles
5 – Sam Davies (Roxy) 2,109.3 miles
Team FONCIA Press Service
Agence Blanco Negro +33 (0)1 47 72 81 41
Stéphanie André. Mob: +33 (0)6 34 18 66 54 / Laurence Dacoury. Mob: +33 (0)6
18 41 30 28
presse@teamfoncia.com
www.teamfoncia.com
Translated by Kate Jennings – Expression
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