It Christmas in the Southern Ocean Vendee Globe

by Philippe Jeantot on 25 Dec 2000 It seems that at sea as well as on land, the peaceful break of Christmas is being respected by practically everyone. The Vendée Globe race HQ is unusually quiet and as for the radio chat, only Dominique Wavre (UBP) responded. Several skippers were on other calls ­ undoubtedly running up some serious Sat B phone bills to loved ones at home. Taking into account an approximate 10 hour time difference, as the leaders reach 150° East, at the hour they are called, we are interrupting their special Christmas Eve dinner (Ed: a big deal for the French!).

Fortunately, the weather conditions are not extreme. Michel Desjoyeaux (PRB) was talking about 44 ­ 55 knots, a good strong Westerly. The leaders are in a much stronger flux as they are at the front of the depression. At the back, the wind is slightly variable. The elements themselves are so far giving the skippers everything they wanted for Christmas, a relatively uneventful time. In fact it isn¹t so much the wind, but the magnetic fluctuations, which are effecting the boats, due to the proximity of the magnetic pole.

The geographical South Pole is of course, not superimposed on the magnetic pole, and the latter is much nearer to the skippers¹ route. What happens is that the rose on the compass continuously rotates 80 degrees either way quite gently, which in turn feeds incorrect information to the autopilot, and it becomes impossible to steer the boat without throwing her off course up and downwind. This was the lot of Thomas Coville (Sodebo) and Marc Thiercelin (Active Wear).

Thierry Dubois (Solidaires), by fax this morning, indicated to us that he couldn¹t pick up the telephone because he has had to helm for hours to stop these magnetic disturbances from veering the boat off its set course.

Mike Golding (Team Group 4) has finally found the respite in conditions to climb the mast and effect the repair on his genoa furler. He spent an hour up on high, drifting off the coast of the Kerguelen Islands, during which he saw penquins diving near the boat and it even started snowing. Golding was pleased to have got the boat back on course and sailing to her full potential with the genoa in operation once again.

Dominique Wavre described the beautiful sailing conditions: ' Even if I would like to have more wind, it¹s so pleasant to have the sun shining with a steady 20 knot blow. All the sails are up, main and gennaker, and the boat¹s maintaining 11 ­ 15 knots. I¹m using this time to go up front and re-sew the staysail, which has got a bit tattered.'

Yves Parlier (Aquitaine Innovations), although still not in contact by telephone, is reaching 8.65 knots. He is no doubt working intensively to improve on his jury rig and this speed is surely some resulting indication.

Tomorrow we shall see what Southern Ocean Santa has in his sack for each of the Vendée Globe skippers. Until then, all of the Vendée fleet plus the team at the Paris Race HQ wish all of you a Happy Christmas.


Latest Ranking* polled at 0955hrs (UT):

Psn Boat Skipper Lat Long Headg Av. Speed** DTF*** Miles from leader
1 PRB Michel Desjoyeaux 52°24'S 144°47'E 114 15.4 12053 0
2 Sill Matines & La Potagère Roland Jourdain 53°08'S 142°32'E 125 7.99 12092 39
3 Kingfisher Ellen MacArthur 54°39'S 135°19'E 76 16.3 12307 254
4 Sodebo Savourons la Vie Thomas Coville 55°20'S 130°11'E 105 10.4 12463 410
5 Active Wear Marc Thiercelin 51°46'S 131°53'E 113 18.2 12495 442
6 Union Bancaire Privée Dominique Wavre 54°00'S 122°22'E 64 12 12742 689
7 Solidaires Thierry Dubois 51°51'S 122°26'E 62 10.7 12788 735
8 Whirlpool Catherine Chabaud 51°27'S 120°31'E 108 14 12870 817
9 EBP - Défi PME - Gartmore Josh Hall 50°07'S 112°35'E 120 11.5 13170 1117
10 Aquitaine Innovations Yves Parlier 49°24'S 112°12'E 99 7.92 13201 1148
11 Voilà.fr Bernard Gallay 47°48'S 105°30'E 116 10.1 13479 1426
12 VM Matériaux Patrice Carpentier 47°31'S 104°49'E 104 8.87 13508 1455
13 Nord Pas de Calais - Chocolats du Monde Joe Seeten 46°58'S 95°07'E 79 7.78 13850 1797
14 Aquarelle.com Simone Bianchetti 46°30'S 81°59'E 127 4.32 14323 2270
15 Team Group 4 Mike Golding 49°25'S 70°43'E 45 5.82 14717 2664
16 Wind Pasquale de Gregorio 44°01'S 58°54'E 56 8.63 15253 3200
17 Old Spice Javier Sanso 40°41'S 56°54'E 76 7.94 15430 3377
18 DDP - 60ème Sud Didier Munduteguy 45°05'S 43°25'E 104 9.66 15852 3799
19 Modern University for the Humanities Fedor Konyukhov 43°09'S 07°29'E 84 8.2 17319 5266

*Ranking ­ A series of waypoints marking a logical route have been used to calculate the rankings. The boat is ranked according to the waypoint it is nearest to.