Leader Dalin 1200 miles to Cape Leeuwin
Worst Of The Storm Passed for Ruyant and Dalin
Golden Ticket for Armel Tripon
Beyou Making Inroads
For the meantime the worst of the Indian Ocean is behind them and Vendée Globe leaders Charlie Dalin and Thomas Ruyant can contemplate a relatively smooth ride to Australia’s Cape Leeuwin, now 1250 nautical miles, or about three days, ahead of Dalin.
Dalin, some 250 miles in front and, last night, more than 120 miles to the south of his nearest rival Ruyant, took the worst of the Indian Ocean storm. Racing under triple reefed main and for much of the time no headsail at all, or a tiny storm jib, the solo skipper of Apivia saw gusts to 55kts and huge seas through the small hours of last night.
Winds have eased down to a more manageable 30kts and the two pacemakers will be into much more favourable SW’ly 20-25 knots breezes to take them to the second of the Vendée Globe’s Great Capes, Leeuwin.
Ruyant passed seven miles north of tiny, remote Amsterdam island early this morning, following a routing which kept him out of the worst of the strong depression. “I didn't really have a choice, Charlie (Dalin) had enough of a lead to stay ahead of this front for longer but for me that would have been too hard. "
The skipper of LinkedOut, who was winner of the Route du Rhum in Class40 in 2010, saw a couple of hours with gusts to 60 knots then had a to make a difficult but controlled gybe in 40kts. “I'm glad I passed this last big hurdle in the Indian Ocean.” He said today, “Of course anything can always happen and we are not immune to anything, but that should be the last big weather phenomenon before we get to the Pacific.
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Racing to the North of the Kerguelen Islands, on the western side of this gigantic low-pressure system which is racing at 25 knots east across the Pacific, the wind is still strong for the sailors chasing the leading duo.
At 45 ° South, Louis Burton, the most southerly of all, has regained 3rd place ahead of Yannick Bestaven, Benjamin Dutreux and Boris Herrmann. The German skipper crossed tracks – like backcountry powder skiers – with Damien Seguin. For the past three days Seguin, skipper of Groupe APICIL, has been spending his time trying to solve electrical problems that cause blackouts and most distressingly the disconnection of his autopilot and battery charging problems.
Fortunately, the situation appears to be back under control. "It is the size of the waves and their direction that dictate what you do" admits Damien Seguin. “You have to do work so hard just to take care of yourself, otherwise, it becomes unliveable. You reduce sails just to be able to eat and drink.”
For almost ten days, the leading peloton of eleven solo sailors followed by Romain Attanasio (12th) and Clarisse Cremer (13th), have been aboard the Southern express train which has dealt many, many stressful moments along the way. Add the infernal noised inside their boats, shaken around by violent movements, these men and women have shown a remarkable ability to adapt to the situation. They have had to get used to life in this aggressive environment.
South of the African continent under the influence of a low-pressure system that has moved down from Madagascar, three skippers are paying a high price to enter the Indian Ocean. Contacted by phone this morning, Stéphane le Diraison (17th), stuck in the middle of the depression, an area with no wind but with a 4m swell, he was almost tearing his hair out. 100 miles ahead of him, Alan Roura was also slamming into the seas, but in 25 knots of wind and in conditions described as unbearable.
Mother Nature is not kind to the competitors. But she can offer them some moments of breath taking consolation, such as the rainbow in the wake of Maxime Sorel’s V and B - Mayenne or the blazing, red Southern dawn on the horizon for Armel Tripon’s L’Occitane en Provence. For some these golden moments live on longer in the memories than seemingly interminable storms.
Having struggled early in the race with technical problems and ending up in the second half of the fleet in the South Atlantic, Armel Tripon seems finally to have won the ‘golden ticket’, continuing to be blessed with favourable winds. His speed and timing were ideal to be able to escape under a fast-moving low pressure and he has taken nearly 300 miles out of his pursuers in recent days and will continue to profit for the next three to four days at least, racing on the heels of this system 560 miles to the west of Clarisse Crémer and Romain Attanasio.
For Jérémie Beyou, there is now the chance to finally start making inroads into the fleet with his fast foiling latest generation Charal. After re-starting nine days after the fleet left Les Sables d’Olonne, Beyou is 130 miles behind 27th placed Sébastien Destremau (Merci) and should pass in the next 24-36 hours.
Thomas Ruyant, LinkedOut:
"It’s beginning to get a little bit better, in any case I know that the conditions are improving so in that sense it’s better, for the morale at least! The night has been pretty lively, but all the same I’m happy with my route, I had to get through the worst of the storm, but then I did not have much choice with regards the course. Charlie had the lead and I had to really hold tight for a couple of hours last night where I had around 45 knots of wind, with gusts reaching to 60 knots, and a pretty rough and choppy sea. So yeah, it was a bit hairy, but it didn’t last too long and now I’ve got pretty manageable conditions with around 30 knots of wind and a sea that’s still choppy, not the long waves.
It’s difficult to go fast in these conditions, but it’s ok, It is more comfortable now, the waves are short, they are going in the right direction. The depression is not very active, there are a few clouds, some sun, and it’s nice in the boat, I am able to get some rest, it’s pretty nice, the conditions are improving, and I’ve got a bit of warmth…As for the gybe, I am a bit stuck, I’ve been waiting for it to calm down a bit before gybing, even though ideally I would have liked to gybe earlier, but with 50 knots still of wind…so I decided instead to keep the boat heading South.
So, it’s cool, I’m really happy to have overcome this sticky patch in the Indian Ocean, which for me was this series of pretty heavy weather conditions, the last to encounter before arriving in the Pacific, arriving at Cape Leeuwin. So, I’m happy to have got through it. I mean it’s true that it’s been several days now, these last days, dealing with these weather conditions, and it’s not always easy, there’s not always a lot of choice in what to do. I’m happy it’s all behind me!
I had a close shave with the Isle of Gough a good week ago, and I've just passed within 10 miles of Amsterdam Island. But it was during the night so I couldn’t really see, but anyway, it still allows you to feel like you’re travelling a bit and it’s pretty cool to see it all, knowing the history of the place, these are the most remote areas together with the Kerguelen islands, of the world. It’s cool to be passing not too far away from them, unfortunately I didn’t see them but hey, I did see some photos. Morale is good, I’m sure as you can hear, but there have been some real ups and downs. You can’t be too clever and 24 hours ago I was dealing with the transition that had to be dealt with in two phases. I was nervous and did not want to make any mistakes. It would come down to very little and you had to manage it with great care where to go through. You also have to keep calm to get through this Vendée Globe, now but also in the long run.
The tail end conditions from the front are still active, but more stable with beween 28 and 35 knots of wind. There will be a further smaller storm to come further South that we will have to negotiate. There should be some pretty good downwind conditions after that, with a more favourable and orderly sea, so nice things lie ahead. What we endured up at the head of the fleet with heavy grey skies, fifty knots of wind and chaotic seas compared to what we have now with 30 knots, sun and short, but favourable seas, we can’t help but feel happy. It is great after what we have had for the past week and since the entry into the Indian Ocean. Our boats were made to sail in these conditions."
Damien Seguin, Groupe-Apicil:
Well there is a lot of wind in the Indian Ocean, that’s for sure! But in fact it’s more the ocean imposing its conditions, it’s the direction and the size of the waves which dictate whether you can go fast or not, whether to lean on one side of the boat or the other. You have to always be attentive to your boat to figure out in which conditions it suffers the least. In the past hour or two, the wind has really begun to build up again, and it’s pretty grey ! It’s starting to look good though, there are some surfs with the boat going around 20/25 knots.
It’s true you really have to push yourselves at times, and there comes a point where you have to take your focus off the sailing and just take care of yourself. Because if not it’s not really feasible. You have to ask yourself each time, what the priority is at each moment, how far are you able to push yourself when you’re tired, what kind of conditions on board you are able to endure, you know at times you can’t even manage to boil the kettle, because you’re dealing with a problem, so, then you prioritize taking down the sail and making something to eat. So there are priorities to put in place when sailing, and it’s not always the route ahead, but also ourselves, our wellbeing, to look after.
You know, we’re here, we chose to do this race, but at the same time we’re not here to live in misery, so you do really need to make sure you are looking after yourself. For 3 days now, I’ve had quite a few little worries on my boat, few issues with my autopilot, which were evolving yesterday, as well as lots of issues with the electrics on the boat, with total power failures which keep happening at any given moment, and so suddenly there’s nothing working on board. I spent half an hour resolving the problem a bit, so now I have a system which is a bit more simple, a bit more robust, but which allows me to keep going in the next coming days with a bit more security which is important too.
The noise on the boat is still here! You just have to make do with it, and you realise that we, as humans, have this ability to adjust to whatever surroundings you have. So the noise, it has just become part of the environment, and even with the noise you manage to sleep, to rest, and develop hearing which can be quite selective, deciding which noises are the important ones to listen to. So there are about 20 different sounds going on, all sorts of problems, that’s really the conditions on board, it’s not always easy but you develop quite an incredible knack to deal with it all."
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Ranking 17:00 UTC
1. Charlie Dalin - [ APIVIA ]—> 14,655.1 nm from the finish
2. Thomas Ruyant - [ LinkedOut ] —> 230.56 nm from the leader
3. Louis Burton [ BUREAU VALLEE 2 ]—> 295.58 nm from the leader
4. Yannick Bestaven [ Maître CoQ IV ]—> 313.46 nm from the leader
5. Benjamin Dutreux [ OMIA - WATER FAMILY ] —> 391.07 nm from the leader
Image: Armel Tripon’s L’Occitane en Provence.