7.Vendee Globe 2012/13 - Teil 2 - Äquator - Cape Leeuwin

December 22, 2012
42 days, 3 hours. 950 miles to the east end of the West Pacific gate
Le Cam Adds Salt to the Golding's Wound
Jean Le Cam Says Mike Golding Has a Problem
Couples split>
The interviews and the messages from the skippers fall into different categories; entertainment, information, misinformation, stones in the water and, occasionally, the application salt to a wound.

Jean Le Cam (SynerCiel) is a masterchef of the airwaves and decided on Saturday that some raw flesh needed a touch more salt.

Le Cam erhält Anweisungen
Vincent Curutschet

Le Cam Adds Salt to the Golding's Wound
He looks like he is about to escape on a north wind from Mike Golding http://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/skipper/12/mike-golding.html (Gamesa) and the two others chasing him, as the three hit a ridge of high pressure south of Australia. He thought he would rub it in.

Le Cam suggested on Vendée Globe TV live, with more than a pinch of mischief, that Golding might have a problem with his boat because his speeds were so low.
"I don't sail as fast as I would like but I'm OK, I'm not very happy with my speed, but I am managing to get far away from Mike," Le Cam said. "I should be able to make the break now. I think Mike has a problem with his sails because it's not possible to sail like he does with the current wind directions. When you see Dominique (Wavre), he is doing much better, so I think something is up with Mike."
"The boat is doing well. I didn't do that much repairs, so it's nice. But I still feel like an old man because of my little injury to my back." (Le Cam injured his back during a particularly heavy landing off a wave last week).

Stirring the pot, Le Cam wondered whether Golding had perhaps not revealed all http://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/news/article/7307/brian-thompson-on-vendee-globe-tv-it-s-really-critical-to-say-that-your-boat-s-fine.html about his wipeout last Sunday http://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/news/article/6921/golding-goes-down-but-gets-up-again.html. Although, Le Cam did post some strangely slow speeds occasionally in the last week.

Of equal significance to the sailing community will be the news that Samson will not be cutting his hair for the finish as vaguely promised.
"Everybody has been breaking my balls before the start (about my hair) but I won't go to the hairdresser," Le Cam said. "It's like this. I'll do some pigtails before my arrival in Les Sables."

Le Cam was stirring an old Anglo-French rivalry. The 53-year-old Frenchman, in his third Vendée Globe and famous at home for winning three editions of the Solitaire du Figaro, is an old sparring partner of the 52-year-old Briton, Golding.

A fan of James Bond, Le Cam, nicknamed Golding: 'Goldinger' (guess after which Bond film) during the 2004 race, when he finished second ahead of Golding in a nail-biting race back to Les Sables. Golding rejected the idea that there was a problem. "Well, I've got a gennaker up at the moment, we will see," he said. "I'm gennakering."

But added that Le Cam was likely to get away: "I am going to get caught by (the ridge of the high pressure). Whether Jean will get caught I don't know, his routing looks pretty straight, so I'm not so sure he gets caught. Theoretically, the boats behind should slow down more, but we'll just have to see."

Dominique Wavre http://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/skipper/17/bernard-stamm.html (Mirabaud), southwest of Golding, in eighth, has closed 30 miles in the last 24 hours, and is just 62 miles behind. Javier Sansó (Acciona 100% EcoPowered), northwest of them both, has lost a little and is 122 miles behind Wavre. The gang of four Vendée Veterans have 13 editions of the race between them.

Wavre said that Le Cam's dive south two days ago had not made the difference, more that he was just far enough in front to avoid the high pressure ridge. "Now he will fly away," Wavre said.

Both couples have separated at the front of the fleet. Having either been side-by-side or on top of each other since December 9, Armel Le Cléac'h http://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/skipper/1/armel-le-cleac-h.html (Banque Populaire) is now 50 miles southwest of the leader Francois Gabart http://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/skipper/31/francois-gabart.html (MACIF). Gabart leads by 34 miles, monster by the single figure standards of the last week. But Le Cléac'h is making the routing running. He was the first to the New Zealand gate on Saturday morning, gybed 70 miles west of where Gabard later gybed and has gybe again further south. Gabart will surely join him as there is low-pressure system arriving there.

Alex Thomson http://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/skipper/25/alex-thomson.html (Hugo Boss), the fastest in the fleet this morning and still over the last 24 hours, averaging 18 knots, has dropped Bernard Stamm http://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/skipper/17/bernard-stamm.html (Cheminées Poujoulat) at the Auckland Islands and is now 45 miles ahead. Thomson is reaching northeast in 26-28 knot northwesterlies. As for the leaders, the passage south of the Auckland Islands and over the Campbell Plateau sounded like no picnic.

Between the couples, Jean-Pierre Dick http://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/skipper/13/jean-pierre-dick.htmlhttp:/www.vendeeglobe.org/en/skipper/13/jean-pierre-dick.html (Virbac-Paprec 3) has been the fastest over the last four hours, averaging 20.1 knots. He is 150 miles due of the New Zealand gate and has closed to 524 miles behind the leader.

At the back Tanguy de Lamotte http://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/skipper/51/tanguy-de-lamotte.html (Initiaves Cœur) has lost 54 miles in pursuit of Bertrand de Broc http://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/skipper/47/bertrand-de-broc.html (Votre Nom autour du Monde avec EDM Projets), as both approach the West Australia gate. Meanwhile Alessandro di Benedetto http://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/skipper/32/alessandro-di-benedetto.html (Team Plastique) is posting some impressive speeds at the back by the Amsterdam gate. He is 4,509 miles behind the leader, but is driving his 1998 boat, the only one in the fleet without a canting keel, hard and has covered 341 miles in the last 24 hours. - Matthew Pryor https://twitter.com/matpryor
Watch Vendée Globe TV live http://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/ at 1200hrs (UTC) (1300hrs, GMT) see today's here http://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/videos.html.

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22/12 - 16:00 (UTC)
1 - François Gabart [ MACIF ] at 10 810 miles from the finish
2 - Armel Le Cléac'h [ Banque Populaire ] at 34 miles from leader
3 - Jean-Pierre Dick [ Virbac Paprec 3 ] at 524.3 miles from leader
4 - Alex Thomson [ Hugo Boss ] at 849.2 miles from leader
5 - Bernard Stamm [ Cheminées Poujoulat ] at 894.2 miles from leader
> FULL RANKING

Last night (a GMT night), which is actually my day time down here, was pretty good. The 24 hours prior to that were really quite tough. The sea has been rough and disorganised with strong gusting winds of around 30 knots or so. I hardly slept at all and was exhausted. Today things are still pretty rough, but a bit more manageable and I got a bit of rest and am feeling a lot better. It looks like the winds should die down quite a bit from tomorrow.
The boat has been going fast and I am happy to have put some more miles between myself and the group of boats behind me so I am now over 1000 miles ahead. I have also started to pull out some miles on Bernard Stamm. It is easy in these situations to get sucked into racing with the guy next to you and forgetting about the bigger picture so I am concentrating on sailing my own race. I passed the half way mark of this race at 4.28am (GMT) on the 21st of December, so there is still a very long way to go!
Alex Thomson (GBR, Hugo Boss)

I have the gennaker up and waves from the back, directly, so there was a lot of surf (giving me great speed). It was little a bit of speed under tension because I fought with the waves sometimes. But it was OK, I just drank a little bit more coffee than usual. (My routing) is a little bit of secret, but I must say that I think Jean Le Cam will go away and we three; Mike, Javier and me will be caught in a high. We will have a quite decent low pressure coming from Tasmania after tomorrow. But I think for tomorrow Jean Le Cam will fly away and we will be stuck. It's just because he's enough ahead. It's not a question of him going south. So he's got opportunity to get the North wind that's coming in the next few hours and making him fly away.
Dominique Wavre (SUI, Mirabaud)

I'm going OK, I'm hoping to push through into some new breeze in 30-odd miles, which will push my heading down more towards the course. I've not had a great couple of days I've losing at both ends, again (half-laughs). I'm having a difficult time trying to find the balance, trying to find the right set up. It doesn't mean you're working any less hard, quite the contrary, you're trying different combinations to see what works. When the polls come in and you see that you're slower than both the boats and behind you figure there must be something wrong so you try changing stuff.
Mike Golding (GBR, Gamesa)

Finally some good wind for Team Plastique, it's great! The anticyclone moved quickly. I enjoyed the quiet time to repair a gennaker and control the boat. It is fine on board. For several hours, I am over 15 knots on average and I have some sun! The wind arrived yesterday and once it became stable, I could cook and rest well. I should cross the Amsterdam gate tomorrow morning (23 December). After that, I'll change direction in order to catch some wind and going down as quickly as possible to the next gate, the Western Australia which is located on the parallel between the meridians 460S 1030th and 1130th. I prepare myself for a drop in temperature and normally strong wind. Australia is getting closer...
Alessandro di Benedetto (ITA, Team Plastique)

I'm quite fine. I'm sailing at 25 knots. We just passed the New Zealand Gate, about 2 hours ago. The conditions are better than before. It's dark outside. I could see the moon for a little while. We know we have to be careful. I'm sailing at the right rhythm I think. I try not to be influenced by Armel, even if he is very close to me. On the ranking we are very close, but we don't see each other that often. It's very interesting for us because we can compare our speeds. It's a great source of information.
François Gabart (FRA, MACIF)

This is the END or Not? If this is the end of the world the one at sea will be the most protected. So I write to you but maybe the world I knew on November 10 no longer exists. I go to a better world, without suffering, without mishap, made of poppies and blue flowers... In any case, we are still 13 to go around the world. With my porch we are 10th, even if through the rankings, it is not necessarily much, I can tell you that I'm doing my best to get back with my beautiful black bird. I don't give up. With some hard work, things always happen. It's pretty amazing to do a second round-the-world in two years. Of the 13here, we are not to many to have done it... I watch all the paths and roads, there are really 13 beautiful navigations. For me it is time to sit at the mapping table. Pre-Christmas menu: a great couscous (prepared with love by Tito the MX3 guru in Les Sables of course) and a green tea. Salam Alikoum. Enjoy your Christmas preparation!
Arnaud Boissières (FRA, AKENA Vérandas)

I'm fine, nice weather, 20 knots. Great conditions to do a great sailing. I started some repairs yesterday. I'm happy with it. I did the hydros, the gennaker. I also did some repairs at the front on the bowsprit. The manoeuvres were a little dangerous, but it's done. My list is getting shorter, it's great. I hope my morning joke made you laugh. I miss a little bit the icebergs; it was part of the Vendée Globe decor. But looking at the security it's better to have ice gates. We can sleep better. Bertrand de Broc (FRA, Votre Nom autour du Monde avec EDM Projects) Great night punctuated by many gennaker manoeuvers, returning the reef in the mainsail and video calls for the Initiatives employees Christmas dinner (I normally go there so it was nice to see and talk to them from here...). This morning, before the Live, I jibed in music, I listen to my reggae selection and for dessert I had some Poire belle-Hélène: so good! Easy to do and we believe we are on earth for a few minutes. Then I took a shower, a little cooler than the last in the tropics... The outside temperature is low, so my shower was quick! Here, I'll re-jibe towards the front door at night. Good Saturday to find the latest gifts. Tanguy clean and fresh
Tanguy de Lamotte (FRA, Initiative-rCœurs)