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Vendee Globe 2008/09 - Foncia/Michel Desjoyeaux
Übersicht Vendee Globe 2008
Der Sieger des 4.Vendee Globe 2000/2001 - genannt "der Professor"
SEGEL.DE-Skipper-Portrait
Friday 30th January 2009
A FINE VOYAGE…
- A hard ETA to pinpoint
- Capricious weather
- Beware: containers across the route
With 378 miles devoured in 24 hours at an average of 15.8 knots VMG, you
could certainly say that Michel Desjoyeaux isn’t sparing the horses on his
60 foot monohull FONCIA. Trimming, repositioning in relation to the low
evacuating itself to the NE of FONCIA, routing to anticipate his approach to
Les Sables d’Olonne, not to mention the telephone calls with the media: the
job-list is increasing and now punctuates the days aboard the white
monohull.
Add to this the far from easy conditions for sailing and rest and
you have the full grasp of what’s happening 650 miles from the French coast.
The air is blue and Michel doesn’t disguise his delight at the prospect of
getting back on dry land: “Oh yes, I’m thinking about terra firma! The days
and nights are complicated at the moment! Who would have thought we’d have
conditions such as these on rounding the Azores High… Where’s the conveyor
belt we all dream of? Since crossing the equator, these are the conditions
we’ve been facing… The NE’ly tradewinds blew up in our face and now we’ve
got hard nights… It’s time we brought this to a close”.
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Foto: Yvan Zedda / FONCIA
Vincent Curuchet/DPPI
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There’s silence as
Michel looks outside. “It’s in the process of calming down gradually but
we’ve still got 20 knots for now. I had one or two squalls last night. I’m
making 15 knots of boat speed so the 20 knots of days gone by are over. I’ve
got another squall to contend with and then I’ll have to hoist more sail
area”. In the meantime FONCIA is devouring the miles while she can, well
aware that the conditions will become calmer as she nears her final
destination. Indeed, traditionally the name of the game is to hook onto the
train of lows slipping across the North Atlantic and contend with the power
of the winds which propel you downwind towards the pontoon. Here though, the
skipper will have to deal with a complicated zone of light winds prior to
hitting an E’ly wind rotation. It’s not an easy situation to cope with, and
it’s even more difficult to hazard a precise ETA…
Sunday, but when?…
“Given the models from 30/01 at 0000 hours and the positions at 0800 hours,
Foncia’s ETA is: between 1st February at 0000 hours UT and 1200 hours UT”.
The message from the Vendée Globe Race Management is clear… an arrival for
FONCIA spanning 12 hours. And Michel certainly wouldn’t contradict this
estimate: “I’m running the models and trying to make an ETA but I can’t
disguise the fact that I’m pulling my hair out about it. One routing scoops
me up near the Cantabrian Mountains (North coast of Spain) passing offshore
of Arcachon, the Baleines lighthouse on île de Ré and then île d’Yeu.
Another has me finishing via the Glénan Islands… To be blunt, I don’t really
know. I’ll finish when I finish… Finishing early in the morning to suit the
tides would be ideal, but right now I’m beginning to smell trouble about
that…
It’s tenable for Sunday but it’s hard to say if it’ll be the morning
or the evening tide”. It has to be said that the weather situation is far
from clear and though finishing in an E’ly breeze might suggest clear skies,
this would force FONCIA to round off her circumnavigation of the globe
close-hauled. “Make sure you kit yourself out in your woolies. You’re going
to have to wrap up warm on Sunday, it’s going to be freezing!…” warns Michel
thoughtfully. And though we recall that the skipper of FONCIA did allude to
an arrival around the hour of Mass some days ago, this is still within the
realms of possibility. “I even warned Brother Jean-Marie de la Chaume (a
region of Sables d’Olonne near Port Olonna) who asked me the question via
internet on the Team FONCIA website: duties may well be disturbed. I
suggested he come to the finish with his parishioners so as to enjoy the
festivities!”
Beware: danger!
And though it’s only natural for Michel to cast his mind to the finish, he
hasn’t lost sight of the fact that the race will only end once the finish
line is crossed. Now free of the competition and the contact racing with a
fellow competitor, the immediate danger will be the ocean itself which has
retained, like a lot of inhabitants of SW France, the traces of damage
caused by last week’s violent storm. Blocks of wood which have fallen from
cargo ships, containers which have fallen from floating cathedrals, rivers
which are sweeping along debris and other tree trunks ripped up from the
earth, the Bay of Biscay and the commercial shipping lanes may still have
some nasty surprises in store, which Michel is only too aware of. Indeed
there will be one such emergency to contend with during the course of today:
“We’ve been warned about the presence of containers at 43°26 N and 14°01 W,
which fell into the sea on 25th January. I’ve noted their positions and
they’re across my route in 78 miles time! I’ve looked at the winds to
estimate how they’ll drift and I reckon they’ll be heading towards the S, SE
or even E. As such I’m going to sail above them. After that I’ll see what
kind of trajectory I’m on…”
“A time for everything and everything in its time” Michel may well have
added, as we recall that this victory, which is now within his grasp, has
been forged little by little, mile after mile, since his restart on Tuesday
11th November. It has been a methodical and well-considered race to victory,
where enjoyment has been the watchword aboard FONCIA with every passing day.
“I’ve always felt happy on this circumnavigation of the globe!” And though a
lot of people will ask him the recipe for this amazing comeback, the
incredible takeover at the head of the ranking on Tuesday 16th December, the
fabulously humorous night messages, the astonishing realism on this global
meteorological chessboard, not to mention the constant sincerity of his
words, part of the answer may lie in the sheer pleasure he has taken in
being on the water. D-48 hours before we can ask him face to face…
Ranking on 30/01/2009 at 1430 GMT
1 – Michel Desjoyeaux (FONCIA) 535.7 miles from the finish
2 - Roland Jourdain (Veolia Environnement) 1,093.4 miles from the leader
3 – Armel Le Cléac’h (Brit Air) 1,447.3 miles
4 – Sam Davies (Roxy) 2,509.0 miles
5 – Marc Guillemot (Safran) 2,615.1 miles
Translated by Kate Jennings – Expression
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