Vendee Globe skipper Mike Golding satisfies another safety gate
by Emily Caroe on 22 Dec 2012
Gamesa - Vendee Globe 2012-13 Gamesa Sailing Team
Vendee Globe skipper Mike Golding has this morning, some 500 miles to the South West of Hobart, Tasmania, satisfied another safety gate, Australia East, one of the two under Australia which are positioned to keep the Vendée Globe fleet within reach of the rescue services.
Golding's deficit to sixth placed Jean Le Cam has not changed much since yesterday afternoon – losing 20 miles – but it is the bigger picture, the losses to the boats way in front which were giving Golding food for thought early this morning.
'I am struggling to find speed at the moment on the boats ahead. Right now the angles are a bit difficult and I only have about 15 knots of breeze and I should probably be on the Code Zero right now but I also think I am in the vicious circle of losing by making too many sail changes and I have just done a full round of changes so I don’t feel I should keep going with that for the sake of it.
'In terms of where we are going then I should hook into stronger winds later today, probably 25kts when we will be going downwind on the fractional kite.
'But in general I feel I should be going quick so it has been disappointing. The stronger stuff is about 100 miles away and I should get a good push from that for a while and so the only determination just now is to get to that wind and not lose sight of that just now. Jean Le Cam will get there before me but in turn I don’t think the guys behind are going to get it and we should just get away a bit from them.
'And then there is this little low after that. It is pretty loose and it will probably favour being in the north a bit but it does move away and we won't be with it for very long.
It is not looking very promising and the pattern just seems to stay the same. Long term there is nothing really bearing down on us to give us a real shove. But, equally, if you look to the south neither has there been anything going past that you think ‘well if we were south we might have had something’ so it is all a bit frustrating to be where we are, hoping for something along the way to make some miles back, to find a niche for a while and really get going and get some miles back. But then I am not sailing the boat badly and you can spend time beating yourself up about
Mike Golding website
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