Vendee Globe - Record run for Britain's Steve White

by vendee Globe media on 27 Dec 2008
Rarely have such experienced sailors, most of whom know and are at home in the extremes of the world's oceans described so dramatically the conditions the leading Vendée Globe skippers went through on Friday and during the night.

That reveals a lot about the hellish sea state with ten-metre high waves and breakers turning the surface into what looks like a ski-piste of spume and spray. The five frontrunners eased off, wishing to preserve their boats as they slalom through the liquid mountains in winds gusting to sixty knots. Rain, hail and snow squalls, an apocalyptic vision of a furious ocean, whipped up by winds that would take the horns off a bullock, as the French say.

Steve White, GBR (Toe in the Water), has kept the foot hard down over the last 24 hours on the evergreen 10 year old Finot Conq design which already completed two circumnavigations, and sailing a creditable 367 miles, the highest average in the fleet over the last day.

Seb Josse (BT) has borne the brunt of such anger, now limping north to see what repairs he can make to the British built IMOCA Open 60 owned and built by Ellen MacArthur and Mark Turner’s Cowes based Offshore Challenges. Josse was knocked flat by a huge wave and has reported damage to the deck of BT. He has picked up speed from the 3.5 knots he was making last night but has the prospect of sailing for many hours to find quieter waters to make repairs.

Josse has already acceded his coveted fourth place to Vincent Riou (PRB) and his shadow Armel Le Cléac’h who is up to fifth now on Brit Air. These two are bonded by only four miles this morning, with Riou – if anything – marginally quicker.

Michel Desjoyeaux (Foncia) has extended his lead by 12 miles over Roland Jourdain (Veolia Environnement), effectively 1.5 knots quicker over the nine hours between the overnight poll.

The leading pair are running parallel tracks, Jourdain about 50 miles to the north. Desjoyeaux, into his 11th successive day in the lead, noted this morning that he had seen squalls to 53 knots and enormous seas. He is now less than 200 miles SWW from the next security gate.

Jean-Pierre Dick (Paprec-Virbac 2) has slowed and was heading nearly due north at just five knots early this morning, and may be trying to improve on the repairs to his rudders.

Sam Davies has been racking up the miles on Roxy, making high average speeds in very favourable conditions, even reporting her own private oasis of sunshine. Meantime Marc Guillemot nears Port Ross, on the north east corner of Auckland Island where today he will stop to repair his mainsail luff track on his mast, a procedure he anticipates should cost him 6.5 hours with Safran stopped.

American Rich Wilson (Great American) sustained a cut head when he was thrown from his bunk yesterday in the violent conditions, while Raphael Dinelli (Fondation Océan Vital) has now doubled back in a course which was taking him north east. He was suffering with numerous power-related issues, as well as broken battens yesterday morning.

Vendee Globe - 04:00 HRS GMT. Saturday 27 December 2008 - (FRA unless stated)

1. Michel Desjoyeaux (Foncia) at + 10056.1 miles

2. Roland Jourdain (Veolia Environnement) at + 52.4 miles

3. Jean Le Cam (VM Matériaux) at + 144.3 miles

4. Vincent Riou (PRB) at + 308.1

5. Armel Le Cléac’h (Brit Air) at 310.1 miles

Selected International

8. Sam Davies, GBR, (ROXY) at + 1426.3 miles
10. Dee Caffari, GBR, (AVIVA) at + 1898.2 miles
11. Brian Thompson, GBR, (Bahrain Team Pindar) at + 1985.2 miles
13. Steve White, GBR, (Toe in the Water) at + 2626 miles
14. Johnny Malbon, GBR, (Artemis) at + 3312.6 miles
15. Rich Wilson, USA, (Great American III) at + 3391 miles
16. Derek Hatfield, CAN, (Algimouss Spirit of Canada) at + 3533.4 miles
18. Norbert Sedlacek, AUT, (Nauticsport.Kapsch) + 4389.3 miles

Rich Wilson (Great American III). Well it was inevitable, the being thrown from the bunk, finally happened last night, and I had a one point landing on my left eyebrow after a fall of 1.5 meters with my head leading the way. Coming out of the bunk and through the opening in the bulkhead is as if your body is funnelled so that your head lands first. I'd had several good naps, this was the third, I awoke either in flight or on impact, scrambled to get up, onto the chart table bench, felt my head, no bumps, forehead, no bumps, then felt that it hurt just above my eye, felt there, not damp nor wet but soaked in blood, the whole left side of my face was dripping blood.

On the floor, on my down booties, on my sea boots, went to the mirror, what a mess, didn't know what was underneath all that blood, took paper towels and cold water and started to gently mop up, and gradually got down to the core problem, a cut under the eyebrow about 1' (2.5cm) long. I tried to see if there was anything in it, but couldn't. Eventually got it to stop bleeding, then let it scab a bit, cut and put a bandage over it. A black eye is coming. We checked for double vision, after all my whole head took a real hit, no problem with the vision, that's good. Another gale is en route, this one looks severe, will try to get organized for it early, we've had a wind shift already, totally 'unforecast' on grib files, so don't know what the future here holds.'

Raphaêl Dinelli (Fondation Ocean Vital). 'This morning I managed to climb up to the second layer of spreaders to deal with the starboard lazy jack. There was still a very heavy swell before the calmer conditions arrived as the wind backed to the NW. Then, I changed a broken batten. Finally, Fondation Océan Vital is back on course and I'm pleased to be able to see her logo again in the mainsail and I can finally get out my Christmas presents. So rather late, Happy Christmas to everyone. I'm exhausted. I need to get some rest now, especially for my right arm. Before resting I'm going to take care of some damaged solar panels. I'm going to have to limit my consumption still further.'

Michel Desjoyeaux (Foncia) in his daily message. 'It's strange how there is so much subjectivity and everything is relative. This afternoon, a nice breeze on the water, brilliant sunshine, a few squally showers, heavy to very heavy seas, with waves reaching up to 9-10 metres, the equivalent to three floors. Now they're round 6m on average, and we don't take any notice.

Wind: a bit, let's say 40 knots, often 45-48, squalls up to 53 knots, not km/h! White water, parallel to the wind, the crests of the turquoise waves as they break. Not easy though to find the right pace and sail to make headway. ET said: 'Throw a bale of hay up and it will come down again.' Coming down. Sailing downwind. We'll get there somehow. Somewhere out to the east. I said it was all relative...

A day spent studying the sea. You know the squall coming up will have 55 or 51 knots, you know if you should furl the staysail or whether you'll stick it out as the front goes over in ten minutes. So I'm taking a sleep after dinner, there was 42-45 all the time. I wake up 40 minutes later, get up and look at the sea: It's really eased off! I'd say 25-30 knots, almost calm here. I look at the dials. It's eased off, but there's still 35-40. That's what the machine says, but I thought there was less. You get used to it... Pacific, means peace, anti-war?! The Roman said: «Si vis pacem para bellum». The sailor says 'If you go to the Pacific, prepare the lowest reef.'

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