Peyron leads Vendee fleet into Southern Hemisphere

by Vendee Globe media on 22 Nov 2008 Loïck Peyron on Gitana Eighty lead the fleet into the Southern Hemisphere last night about 21h GMT. The skipper of Gitana Eighty is still 21.1 miles ahead of Seb Josse (BT). The top three remains the same overnight, Jean-Pierre Dick (Paprec-Virbac 2) third.

Mike Golding regains two places overnight to lie eighth. Painless crossing of the Doldrums for Wavre, Thompson, Davies. Desjoyeaux passes Caffari who is now 16th Sedlacek and Stamm have passed the Cape Verde Islands.

The top three positions have remained the same overnight in the Vendée Globe with eight boats across the Equator into the Southern Hemisphere by the 0400hrs GMT poll, Loïck Peyron (Gitana Eighty) still leading by 21.2 miles from Seb Josse (BT). In third, Jean-Pierre Dick (Paprec-Virbac 2) has lost less than two miles overnight to the leading pair, but gained against fourth placed Vincent Riou (PRB) by just under five miles as the leaders pace each other upwind in the SE’ly tradewinds.

Slightly to the west of the leading pack, Mike Golding has risen two places overnight, passing Jean Le Cam (VM Matériaux) and Jérémie Beyou (Delta Dore) and is pressing seventh placed Roland Jourdain (Veolia Environnement) hard, making 4.6 miles against him overnight to lie less than a mile behind.

Jourdain was 11.6 miles SW of Golding this morning. A comparatively swift crossing of the Doldrums for Dominic Wavre, SUI, (Temenos II), Brian Thompson, GBR, (Bahrain Team Pindar) and Sam Davies, GBR, (ROXY) sees Thompson start to show the upwind speed of his powerful design, second quickest of the top 20 boats overnight, and fastest this morning, but this trio have lost around 17-20 miles on the leaders overnight. Dee Caffari, GBR, (Aviva) became the latest skipper to fall to the steady climb up the fleet of Michel Desjoyeaux (Foncia).

Foncia overtook Aviva overnight to lie 15th, Caffari 8.6 miles behind in 16th this morning. Steve White, GBR, (Toe in the Water) is feeling the speed crunch in the Doldrums and only made an average of 5 knots overnight, but he has not suffered as much as Jonny Malbon, GBR, (Artemis II) whose overnight average is just 3.6 knots and who is making just over 1 knot this morning.

Voices from the sea.

Bernard Stamm (Cheminées Poujoulat): Just a few words to say I've seen some flying fish. There are a lot of them, still looking just as clumsy as they take off, but are majestic as they fly. I was worried they had disappeared. I'm just passing the final Cape Verde islands. I had to tack away from the wind shadow of the first one, Sao Nicolau. I didn't think it was high enough to produce that effect, but as the wind was easterly, there was a calm zone that I wanted to avoid. Now I'm being slowed down a bit by the islands of Santiago and Fogo, the highest in the group. Around fifty miles from the first one, so I may slow down, but shouldn't stop. It's great seeing land and will probably be the last time I see any for some time.'

Arnaud Boissières (Akena Vérandas): Yesterday evening, there was a beautiful cloud. After the cloud went over, the wind disappeared and the sails flapped. I caught sight of Foncia ahead of me in the distance. Then, she got away leaving me standing for two hours doing 1 knot. Think the Doldrums are behind me now. Looking forward to the southern hemisphere. Now, I'm going to be leaning over sailing upwind.'

Sam Davies (Roxy) has made it through the Doldrums and is now in 13th place, 217 miles from the leader.
'Well, the Doldrums was very kind to us this year! Our little group of boats (Temenos, Pindar, Roxy and Safran) managed to slip through without really slowing down. Now we are careening along upwind in the SE trade winds, just North of the equator. The reason that we had no 'doldrums' was because I wanted a light patch of wind to re-do a lashing at the top of my mainsail, which meant dropping the sail, working at radar-height in my climbing harness, and then re-hoisting. So, I had to do it in 16 knots of wind, which was a little challenging, but totally do-able. The good thing was that the re-hoist was less hard as I went to one reef! With just the solent up, we actually didn't slow down too much either.

So, now it is an upwind ride for a while, where I struggle to keep up with these new powerful boats, so I will be trying as hard as I can to keep Roxy at 110% all the time! Tomorrow I will cross the equator, so I shall make my offering to Neptune (he gets champagne and chocolate) to thank him for looking after us so far and to negotiate good winds for the rest of the trip!'

Standings at 0500GMT, Day 12.
1- Loïck Peyron (Gitana Eighty) 20671.4 miles to the finish
2- Seb Josse (BT) at + 21.2 miles to leader
3- Jean-Pierre Dick (Paprec-Virbac 2) at + 36.1 miles to leader
4- Vincent Riou (PRB) at + 43.5 miles to leader
5-Armel Le Cléac’h (Brit Air) at + 49 miles

Selected international:
8- Mike Golding, GBR, (ECOVER 3) at + 78.2 miles
11- Dominique Wavre, SUI, (Temenos 2) at + 193.5 miles
12- Brian Thompson, GBR, (Bahrain Team Pindar) at + 202.1 miles
13- Sam Davies, GBR,(ROXY) at + 217.9 miles
16- Dee Caffari, GBR, (AVIVA) at + 341.4 miles
18- Steve White, GBR, (Toe in the Water) at + 394.6
19- Johnny Malbon, GBR, (Artemis) at + 421.3 miles
20- Unai Basurko, ESP, (Pakea Bizkaia) at + 433.5 miles
21- Rich Wilson, USA, (Great America III) at + 507.9 miles

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