Vendee Globe - Big wind shifts create more woes for Gamesa

by Emily Caroe on 10 Dec 2012 The Vendee Globe race seems to never stop providing new problems for Gamesa’s skipper Mike Golding, who spent sleepless nights trying to solve big winds shifts that kept his boat almost stationary in the high seas.

The British solo sailor feels there the weather gods are conspiring against his need for sleep. Once again last night he had just settled when a big wind shift wrong footed the autopilot, broached Gamesa and Golding had to get out of his bunk to sort out the ensuing mess.

'Now we are plugging along quite OK but conditions are a big fragile. The winds are up and down and shifting a lot. Last night I had the boat nicely set up with the A3, reaching along when suddenly there was a shift and I had full lock out on the pilot. Since then I have been a bit overcautious, sailing a bit deeper. It seems like the nights have been when the changes have happened, like every time I get my head down.

'This high pressure is more or less with us for a while, stretching out so it is not like we are passing through it. It is frustrating to be losing miles so quickly again but that is just the way it is going to be.'

Golding will expected once again on Vendée Globe Live at 12:05 GMT today, speaking with his two-time Transat Jacques Vabre co-skipper, Bruno Dubois. Vendee Globe Mike Golding website