Vendee Globe - Squalls at Cape Horn

by Vendee Globe on 15 Jan 2017 In the teeth of a nasty gale the next group of four will enter the Drake Passage this Sunday with 35 to 40 knots of wind, gusting to over 50 knots off Patagonia! Meantime, at the head of the Vendée Globe fleet, the battle is still raging between Armel Le Cléac'h and Alex Thomson.

These are the harshest conditions that the singlehanded fleet have experienced at Cape Horn! Indeed, a depression in the Southern Ocean is generating a NW’ly wind, which is really packing a punch as it hits the Andes cordillera. The situation is expected to last throughout Sunday with a temporary lull tonight before another unsettled system rolls over the top of Patagonia on Monday. The sea state is particularly dangerous as it funnels through the Drake Passage (just over 400 miles wide), further complicated by the fact that the Vendée Globe competitors have to respect the Antarctic Exclusion Zone (AEZ) which is only 80 miles south of Cape Horn.

The four sailors involved have already taken steps to prepare for the storm: Fabrice Amedeo (Newrest-Matmut), Arnaud Boissières (La Mie Câline), Alan Roura (La Fabrique) and Rich Wilson (Great American IV) have really slowed up since Saturday, whilst trying to get in as much southing as possible to skirt the AEZ where the wind is lighter. However, some 250 miles from Tierra del Fuego, the wind is already reaching more than twenty knots and the foursome is expected to make their entrance into the Atlantic with 35 to 40 knots of breeze, peaking at 50 knots in the squalls.

For the four other solo sailors still in the Pacific, Didac Costa (One Planet-One Ocean) and Romain Attanasio (Famille Mary-Étamine du Lys) have had a swift start to the weekend with a steady S’ly wind, easing as night falls. As for Pieter Heerema (No Way Back) and Sébastien Destremau (Techno First-face Ocean), they are both being pushed along by two low pressure systems, which are allowing them to rapidly gain ground to the East, grazing the edge of the AEZ.

It’s a complete change of scene in the Atlantic where the duel for the ultimate prize is still incredibly intense. Indeed, this Sunday, the SE’ly breeze has picked up to around 20 knots, bumping up the boat speeds. Armel Le Cléac'h (Banque Populaire VIII) was the first to hit this new breeze, but his lead was not big enough to shake off Alex Thomson (Hugo Boss) who is still in hot pursuit a hundred miles astern. The two skippers are off the archipelago of Madeira this Sunday morning. The Azores are their next target and current routing shows them likely to just shave the island of Santa Maria, which is furthest East. From that point, a very long starboard tack is on the cards to reach the latitude of Les Sables d'Olonne and this drag race is sure to be key as they prepare to enter the dreaded ridge of high pressure and beyond it the final sprint for home across the Bay of Biscay.

500 miles further south, Jérémie Beyou (Maître CoQ) is back in some rather lacklustre trade winds that are preventing him from making any in-roads into Jean-Pierre Dick’s lead (St Michel-Virbac); the latter enjoying good pressure offshore of Cape Verde. Astern, Yann Éliès (Quéguiner-Leucémie Espoir) and Jean Le Cam (Finistère Mer Vent) aren’t about to shake up the hierarchy as they’re still neck and neck and have had to reposition themselves further to the NW, now lined up on the same trajectory for at least as far as the Canaries.

Finally, Louis Burton (Bureau Vallée) is making headway in the trade winds of the southern hemisphere some 1,000 miles shy of the equator while Nándor Fa (Spirit of Hungary) is continuing to gain ground to the NE, pushed along by what will be his last low pressure system of the Southern Ocean. The weather forecast is more complicated for Éric Bellion (CommeUnSeulHomme) and Conrad Colman (Foresight Natural Energy) who are looking to reposition themselves nearer the Argentine coast where a S’ly breeze awaits them this weekend. However, the climb up to Uruguay promises to be laborious in light airs followed by a NE’ly breeze.

Quotes

Romain Attanasio (Famille Mary-Étamine du Lys):

“I’ve been a bit submerged over the past couple of days with a strong wind on the beam. It’s been pretty lively but things calmed down a lot this evening. The problem was linked to the fact that I had a S’ly wind and now there’s a S’ly sea, which I’m having to luff up in, so we’re really slamming into the waves. It feels like everything on the boat will break, but things are beginning to get more ordered. I was sold the image of a big, peaceful swell yet the seas are just as chaotic as in the Indian Ocean! With the breeze blowing in from Antarctica it’s perishing and very wet so I’m running the engine for two hours a day to dry out the inside of the boat. I’ve really pushed the boat hard over recent days and the group in front isn’t that far ahead now. You never know what will happen in the Atlantic!”

Arnaud Boissières (La Mie Câline):

“I’ve positioned myself to the South, near the AEZ to avoid the strong winds blowing along the Andes cordillera. At around 0200 UTC I put in a gybe in around twenty knots of breeze on port tack in anticipation of the squall forecast over Cape Horn. It’s still very cold, but the end of the Southern Ocean is in sight. I’ve been playing for time a bit so as not to get hit by the worst of the storm, but I’m gradually committing to it. The sea state has eased a little but we still have cross seas. It’s drizzling and we’re in darkness now. I hope I don’t get 60 knots! I’ve been right around the boat checking everything. I’ve shifted two sails that were on deck in the cockpit and I’ve put in a third reef. I’ve lashed my mainsail securely to the boom so that there are no pockets of water and I’ve checked down below to ensure there’s nothing loose. It’s a bit stressful but in 2009, together with Dee Caffari and Brian Thompson, we were caught in a southern storm just after Cape Horn… It was really full-on! We played for time a bit then too by emailing each other in English.”

Rich Wilson (Great American IV):

“We rocketed through the night in a manner that is not at all my style. Yet there seemed an opening to get to Cape Horn if we went very fast and the wind gave us the chance, so we did. It was shocking and noisy and bouncy and noisy and big seas and the boat ricocheting and noisy and fast, fast, fast. And yet, when all was said and done, our little boat icon on the position reports showed 14.9 knots. So for the leaders of this race, who routinely would have little boat icons showing 19 knots, or 21 knots, what must that be like on board other than petrifying. It’s the one aspect of this I do not understand: how can those sailors tolerate that stress? When we do a tack gybe, the first part is to roll up the fractional gennaker. This is a long, hard, grind on the pedestal winch at high speed, or as fast as you can muster.

For me, my asthma becomes problematic, not that I have an asthma attack or an anaphylactic episode, but just the fatigue of breathing at a level of 70-80%, when I clearly need 100%. These boats are monsters to manoeuvre singlehanded. Maybe if the storm delays a little bit it will be better. But hope has little role at sea. We await the next weather report forecast and will continue making our plans.”

Alan Roura (La Fabrique):

“Saturday was pretty cool in the end with a morning in a fairly light wind, but very heavy seas and the wind climbing gradually. Right now, I have 27 knots and I’m all too aware that I’ll end up with 40 like yesterday. The main concern is not really the wind, it’s the building seas, which are running very, very fast and becoming dangerous. The boat surfs along and then buries into the waves if I’m carrying too much sail area. I think that as a result of La Fabrique having a mast a long way forward, she buries more than the other boats so I have to reduce my mainsail very early in heavy seas. Ultimately though, I don’t know if I’m losing much in terms of speed. I’ve compared my route with that of Fabrice and we’re going fast, with lots of zigzagging, but ultimately, on a direct course, with the wind right on our stern, under staysail alone, pilot, film, music and nap, we’re reaching the same point because beyond the cape we’ll be becalmed again! This evening I’m going to try to bear away quite a bit if the sea state allows to see if that changes anything.”