Vendee Globe - Action filled day on Bahrain Team Pindar

by Brian Thompson on 25 Dec 2008
Happy Christmas from 50S!! - Another incredible action filled day on Bahrain Team Pindar.

After the repairs had been finished at dawn yesterday, I slowly started sailing and the boat was going fine, ahead of the cold front in 40-50 knots of wind and the repair was holding.

The cold front arrived just after dawn this morning and it was quite an unusual one, with the wind dropping and going into the west (which is normal), but then going into the south and blowing at 30 knots, which was not on any of the weather charts, and was a very big shift.

This was a critical test for the repairs as the seas were shocking at this point, with the two differing wind directions and the boat was doing some serious slamming. I was so glad of the calm weather I had to do the repair properly; otherwise this would have been a bad place to be with a broken boat.

Then the wind turned more SW and kept on increasing until it was a steady 50-60 knots for hour after hour. The seas were starting to build and the pilot was not liking the way the stern was getting thrown around by the mainsail.

One thing that the design office had said was that extreme rudder load transfers through the boat to that front longitudinal would work it hard, so all things considered I decided to take the main down till the wind had subsided. I was in a tiny low that had formed on the cold front, just at the time I was there, and so slowing a little would allow the bad weather to track east faster relative to my movement.

So I tried to get the mainsail lowered going downwind, it was not budging, so I turned onto a reach in 55 knots and let the halyard down, it moved – but just a tiny bit. I was going to have to climb on the boom and pull the luff down by hand.

This was a massive effort, but I eventually got it down, inch by inch. Whenever I let go of the sail it would shoot up again, so it was 2 steps forward, and one step back to get the sail down. By the time I got back to the cockpit my finger tips were in pain from both the cold and clawing the sail down. I felt a bond with those common seamen standing on the yards of their square riggers, fighting to get the sails shortened on to the yards.

Once I got the main down the boat was very happy, more in control and still hitting 17/18 knots of speed easily. Taking the main down is not something I like to do, as it can be a real bear to get the sail up again. As it is proving.

I used the opportunity to get a little sleep, and to attempt a video conference call with APP as it was constantly over 50 knots. By then it was getting dark, and the wind had dropped enough to try to raise the main. But I soon saw that the leeward lazy had broken and I would have to go up the mast to run a new lazyjack, not too high, maybe 8 metres, and then put up the mainsail.

I was certain I could not get this all done by dark and it’s too tricky an operation to raise the main on your own in 35 knots without being able to see what is happening. So I decided to put up a bigger headsail and tidy up the boat, so that I am ready for the morning, when the wind and seas should be lighter too. I am glad that I made that choice as, in going round the boat, I saw that the force of the sea had dislodged both the man overboard module and the liferaft from the stern.

The liferaft was just attached by its painter, so I was pretty close to seeing it inflate and be dragged off behind the boat. Fortunately, we all have another liferaft, but this is the better one of the two. Its now safely lashed at the front of the cockpit and I will have to tell the race committee that the seal on the liferaft is broken.

It is unsurprising that 60 knots is not good for the speed or for reliability. I really had not expected this much wind, but again, its all part of the rich experience of the Vendee Globe race. So I am stuck for a few Christmas Eve hours going slowly.

I have attached some photos, some of the seas and one looking forward showing the winds speed at 55 knots on the electronic displays below the boom.

Some petrels flitting around the boat today and some albatross seemingly unfazed by the strength of the wind. Sea temp 7.3 degrees at 50S 139E.

Brian