03.12.2008
Snow on deck, coffee in the bilges
The miles are being ticked off as the fleet make towards the first ice gate,
which the frontrunners are likely to pass this evening. The passage of a
front livened up proceedings last night, but by the early hours the wind had
eased, leaving the sailors to recuperate over recent hours in what are some
real “rock’n’ roll” conditions according to Roland Jourdain.
When you ask a skipper on land to talk about the roaring forties, he will
instantly refer to the magic of the long sessions of slipping along, the
interminable surfing, the beauty of the albatross… The human being is such
that with time the bad memories fade and the good ones reindex. However, if
you ask the same question to the same skipper, alone aboard a boat measuring
over 18 metres at 40° south, the conversation will revert again to the magic
of this austral sailing, but the stress which accompanies them everywhere
will not be forgotten. At this morning’s radio session Jean Le Cam described
how difficult it was to get off to sleep in a boat which was “borderline
red”. Let’s not forget the all pervading sound which attacks the eardrums to
create a “living hell” for Roland Jourdain, who nevertheless knows this part
of the world well.
A few hours earlier, Dominique shared this “noisy universe” with us in a
message:
"It’s a strange atmosphere this evening. It’s pitch black and we’re in a
noisy universe. The gennaker halyard is grating against the foot of the mast
and the sharp whistling of the rudders at high speeds makes my eardrums
vibrate. The hull roars as it surfs. There is a din as the waves smash
across the deck. All this racket has a supernatural aspect to it at night.
You have to reason with it and tell yourself it’s normal… normal but not
banal! Goodnight landlubbers, Dom".
We learnt today that as a result of several large, drifting icebergs
positioned very far north, the second ice gate off the Kerguelen islands has
been shifted higher up. Contacted at 1600 hours Dominique welcomed this
decision. “Of course it’s an excellent decision to have adapted their
position according to the satellite observations at the time. It’s
reassuring to see that the race management is taking care of us!”
Like the leaders, Temenos II had to endure the passage of the front over the
course of the night, accompanied by a few snowflakes. Since this morning
though, conditions have become calmer and steadier. “Last night I
experienced a snow squall just behind the front. There wasn’t enough to
build a snowman but mid manoeuvre I could see the snowflakes falling in the
light of my head torch. The wind shifted round 90° and I made the most of it
to put in a bit of southing again. With conditions being fairly shifty, I
spent a lot of the night trimming the boat. The wind shifted back round this
morning and I gybed back onto an E’ly course. The wind eased considerably,
dropping to 14 or 15 knots. The seas had slightly more influence than the
wind so I spent a while at the helm to get the boat well balanced in the
waves. For the past few hours the wind has filled in a little and the
pilot’s managing to hold its course well…”
In this NW’ly air flow, the skipper is continuing to put in a series of
gybes so as to make the most of the slightest wind shift. For the time being
conditions seem steady and relatively calm but with the arrival of a low
forecast tomorrow, it’ll be quite another scene. “You can sense that the
weather’s going to change thanks to the appearance of the sky. Yesterday
there were some cirrus clouds really high up and today we’re surrounded by
low cloud. When the lows hit in this part of the world, it’s always preceded
by this type of sky. For the moment, we’re still feeling the effects of the
high pressure to our left, but this will give way to a fine low. We should
get a good thirty knots or so tomorrow, and that’ll be just the beginning.
After that there are likely to be several others.”
The skipper is not anxious though as this will be his 8th time in the
southern ocean. Dominique is making the most of the conditions to perform a
last thorough inspection of his boat. This hunt for wear is sometimes
accompanied by some strange findings which aren’t always easy to identify.
“Whilst performing a check of the boat, I saw some very brown water around
the aft ballast tanks to leeward. I wondered what it was and then I saw 5 or
6 coffee sachets lingering around there, which had burst. I’ve no idea what
they were doing there. It has to be said that the boats move about all over
the place at times. Things waltz around down below and you don’t necessarily
find things where you left them.” This spillage won’t have eaten too much
into the imposing stock of coffee embarked at the start to ensure Dominique
his daily dose of coffee however. “I think I’ve still got enough, even if
the race lasts 100 days. I may be lacking a number of things if this is the
case but I’ll have enough coffee!”
Translated by Kate Jennings – Expression
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