Vendee Globe - More of the same on board Gamesa

by Emily Caroe on 27 Nov 2012 ‘More of the same….’ Such is the stability of the regime aboard Gamesa, in the Vendee Globe, that at times it can become monotonous as Mike Golding works south east around the South Atlantic anticyclone system, now in sixth place and having lost a few miles to seventh placed Jean Le Cam recently.

'I am not sure what Jean has been doing but I can’t really match it just now. I suspect he has his Code Zero up and running lower and faster to get south quicker and into the rotation earlier, but I am just not sure about that. If you get caught out it is much worse. I had a session with the ‘Zero' yesterday and it was fast but I got headed almost immediately and the angle was horrible for a while. So I am back on the Genoa and we’ll see how today pans out. I think I am in a better compromise.

'The breeze is pretty stable at 12-13kts just now. I think we will slow later, probably Wednesday when it gets complicated. There is a trough now under the [high pressure] ridge as it extends and there is no wind in that, so I think that will be an advantage to having plenty of runway [a wider band where there should be more consistent breeze for
longer].

'I had some work to do on the autopilot ram mountings. The screws had loosened, the holes had ovalled out and so that was good to catch. If that had gone it could have been a major. So I check the whole boat on an ongoing basis. The more you do it the Vendee Globe website