Vendee Globe - Conrad Colman - Thankful for our beautiful jail cell

by Conrad Colman on 22 Nov 2016 Conrad Colman is a Vendee Globe competitor with double nationality from New Zealand and USA. He settled in Lorient, France in 2009 to pursue his dreams of offshore racing. Since then he has raced the Mini Transat, Route du Rhum, won the Global Ocean Race and completed his last round the world race on a 60ft IMOCA in the Barcelona World Race.

He is racing in the Vendee Globe in an attempt to become the first sailing in the eight editions of the Vendee Globe to complete the course without using fossil fuels. Conrad Colman is sailing Foresight Natural Energy sponsored by Foresight a London based natural energy investment company.

As of 0400hrs on November 22, 2016 UTC Foresight Natural Energy was in 17th place overall.

Update Day 16 - November 22, 2016

If the back half of the fleet has been imprisoned by an expansive bubble of light and shifty winds, we need to be thankful for our beautiful jail cell. It's got fresh air, sunshine, plenty of time for exercise and my one even has John Butler on in the background!

Don't get me wrong, my competitor's heart yearns for the thrashing the boys are getting at the front but the sailors proverb 'you can't change the wind but you can adjust the trim of your sails' has never been more true. Last night was dark and moonless, Orion's belt shone brightly overhead and Sirius burned in the east but I had eyes only for one bright speck on the horizon, Stephane's navigation lights. The shifty winds kept me busy by constantly adjusting the trim on the Code 0 (the biggest flat upwind sail I have, the same one I started the race with if you want to check the photos from Nov 6) but progress was hindered by the constant rolling motion of the boat on the long ocean swell that literally shakes the wind from the sails!

We might not be going 20 knots like the others but we're certainly enjoying our slow motion battle even if it feels like we are sailing through treacle. It has been a bitter pill to swallow watching the guys run up from behind but I have benefitted from the compression to get closer to Louis and Arnaud so we'll now enter the next phase of the race with a big group that will have a battle royale in the Indian Ocean and beyond. Until then I will climb the mast to replace crucial lashings, check over the boat and be ready for when we can run instead of just crawling along.

Update Day 15 - November 21, 2016

Given the wide variety in the age and performance of the boats and skippers in this race it's normal that there will be breakaways, chasing groups, and to continue with the nod to cycling, the main peloton. With Arnaud on La Mie Câline I have been pushing the pace at the front of our peloton to try to break away from those behind before entering into stormy south because miles made here will pay cash later.

It's a rich gets richer world and the proof is in the weather forecasts! The leaders have drawn a beautiful curve from Brazil to the Antarctic Exclusion Zone (AEZ) by shaving the edge of the St Helena high (the permanent South Atlantic High pressure zone) and have now linked up with their first depression and are off. The chasers (me!) are out of sync with this dream scenario and have to negotiate a ridge of high pressure pushed out from the St Helena high so we'll be battling calms and shifts in the same waters that the leaders were flying through only a couple of days before.

However, in this solitary battle against the elements it's great to have a friend nearby. Yesterday Stephane overtook me quite close and we were able to have a long chat on the VHF radio and exchange a few stories from our race so far. Stephane is a friend and an experienced competitor with a newer, faster boat so I am happy to have him act as a measuring stick for the rest of the race. With the wind dropping I was able to change sails and slowly but surely draw back his lead through the night and I am now further south than he is and still going faster. The lighter winds should favour my skinnier boat so I hope I can choose the good way through the minefield ahead so we can continue our friendly battle in the south!

Update Day 13: Step by step - November 19, 2016

At 45000 kilometers, the Vendee Globe, by any measure, is an immense challenge. There is no other sporting event in the world that pitches man against the elements, solo and without support, for so long. And yet, since the beginning of our campaign I have been insistent that this race be more than the story of a guy finding his limits while being splashed in the face for three months.

This is why we ripped the engine out of the boat and converted the boat into an ambassador for clean energy along with our partners Foresight, Oceanvolt, Super B and Solar Cloth. This is also why I am proud to race in support of a little French charity called Voiles des Anges, a group that helps parents grieve the loss of their children by honouring their memory in sporting events. I am also in regular contact with French schools and met with several before the start and will meet with more afterwards.

When am asked what the Vendee Globe represents to me I always reply that is the ultimate challenge and the sum of all my interests in business, sport and adventure. For the parents in Voiles des Anges, their ultimate challenge might be learning how to wake up each day with a hole in their lives or for the school kids it might be making it through math class. The lesson is that we all have challenges in our lives that can appear insurmountable but by breaking them down into small steps and constantly moving forward anything is possible.

I am writing this today to ask, 'What is your Vendee'? What is your ultimate challenge and what little steps are achievable today? Today I will cross the equator, completing the first step of the race and opening up the next which is the South Atlantic, followed by the Indian Ocean etc etc. In this way the world's longest sporting event is just a series of little steps, repeated daily until the end. Just like life!

So tell me, what's your Vendee? 'A journey of a thousand miles (45,000 km ) starts with a single step' The important thing is to start walking.