Taking the most direct, southerly, shortest route through the
Doldrums looks to have paid handsomely for British skipper, Alex
Thomson. The passage through the Doldrums was the big subject of the
day, when we spoke to Alex, Sébastien Josse and Armel Le Cléac'h.
Alex Thomson (GBR) Hugo Boss: “It
has been going quite well so far. I have managed to keep the wind so
far. It is dropping away now. So far, rather than big clouds coming and
going, it seems to have been raining for a number of hours now. I did
manage to take a shower and so I am happy about that. I am still a long
way from being out of the Doldrums. I have taken a direct, southerly,
even east in my southerly route just to try and minimise my time spent
in the Doldrums, just so I can exit as quickly as possible. Hopefully I
will be the first to get stronger wind, to get more lifted breeze in a
few days.”
About going his own way, others going west….. “ I don’t know about them. The last Vendée Globe I had a good Doldrums, the last Barcelona World Race we had a terrible Doldrums. I went south and last time Guillermo (Altadill) and Jean Le Cam went west of south. It has not looked good to the west at all to me, to be honest. It is difficult. You can’t really look at the GRIB files, but they don’t really mean much, you can look at Satellite pictures, you can look at Quikscat images which show actually what wind angles are at a certain time. There is still a fair amount of guess work, a fair amount of luck involved. To me there is no fixed science. If you were to speak to Jean Yves Bernot he makes a science of it. But for me, I entered the Doldrums further east than anyone else but here I am just trying to play my angles, the best VMG, getting south as quick as possible. I am playing the clouds as they come, whatever local effects there are. I just want to get out of this mess as quickly as possible because I hate it. I know that at any moment you can be stopped and be stuck, going no where, for hours and hours and hours. I am very keen to exit as quickly as possible. I did manage to get some sleep before I came in. The last Vendée Globe here I did not sleep for 36 hours and so I have prepared myself to not sleep and to push.
Why through Cabo Verdes? “My strategy, once I recovered from that horrendous gybe I made at Finisterre, was to get as west as possible. I got that and managed to be the most west boat at one point. Then, heading south, I was playing my VMG, the most efficient course, according to wind speed and direction. That inevitably takes you to somewhere you don’t want to go, the Cape Verde Islands. The Holy Grail is always to pass way out to the west. That was not going to happen. So the option for me was to make another horrific gybe, and head west and make no gain in the direction I wanted to go in order to miss the huge wind shadow off these islands. So I went through. I have been through various islands before. I chose to go through there because the first island is very big, high, 1500m. The other is only 500m and so there is not so much of a wind shadow. I could see on the high resolution GRIBs that they were forecasting a shift and a slight acceleration at the end of the channel there. And a bit of a shift to the east. That meant I could get a good angle out, after I had stuck in my two gybes. My objective was really to miss the wind shadow of the next island which is about 2000m high. So that was my reasoning. I was not sure it was going to work out perfectly. But it worked brilliantly. I am happy with that.”
About going his own way, others going west….. “ I don’t know about them. The last Vendée Globe I had a good Doldrums, the last Barcelona World Race we had a terrible Doldrums. I went south and last time Guillermo (Altadill) and Jean Le Cam went west of south. It has not looked good to the west at all to me, to be honest. It is difficult. You can’t really look at the GRIB files, but they don’t really mean much, you can look at Satellite pictures, you can look at Quikscat images which show actually what wind angles are at a certain time. There is still a fair amount of guess work, a fair amount of luck involved. To me there is no fixed science. If you were to speak to Jean Yves Bernot he makes a science of it. But for me, I entered the Doldrums further east than anyone else but here I am just trying to play my angles, the best VMG, getting south as quick as possible. I am playing the clouds as they come, whatever local effects there are. I just want to get out of this mess as quickly as possible because I hate it. I know that at any moment you can be stopped and be stuck, going no where, for hours and hours and hours. I am very keen to exit as quickly as possible. I did manage to get some sleep before I came in. The last Vendée Globe here I did not sleep for 36 hours and so I have prepared myself to not sleep and to push.
Why through Cabo Verdes? “My strategy, once I recovered from that horrendous gybe I made at Finisterre, was to get as west as possible. I got that and managed to be the most west boat at one point. Then, heading south, I was playing my VMG, the most efficient course, according to wind speed and direction. That inevitably takes you to somewhere you don’t want to go, the Cape Verde Islands. The Holy Grail is always to pass way out to the west. That was not going to happen. So the option for me was to make another horrific gybe, and head west and make no gain in the direction I wanted to go in order to miss the huge wind shadow off these islands. So I went through. I have been through various islands before. I chose to go through there because the first island is very big, high, 1500m. The other is only 500m and so there is not so much of a wind shadow. I could see on the high resolution GRIBs that they were forecasting a shift and a slight acceleration at the end of the channel there. And a bit of a shift to the east. That meant I could get a good angle out, after I had stuck in my two gybes. My objective was really to miss the wind shadow of the next island which is about 2000m high. So that was my reasoning. I was not sure it was going to work out perfectly. But it worked brilliantly. I am happy with that.”
How does the South Atlantic look?
“I have not even looked at the South Atlantic. I looked quickly
after the Cape Verdes, but right now all my focus is on getting out of
here, Doldrums, Doldrums, Doldrums. My objective is get out into the
South East trades. I will go upwind in a steady breeze. It has no
bearing on what I do now.”
Changed engine oil yesterday? “Was that only yesterday? I don’t know what happened and it has not happened before, I think it was just the angle we were sailing down the Atlantic, water has been getting into the engine, almost undoubtedly through the pick up in the keel. Fortunately we got it the best I could. I had to do an oil change, to pump out, flush out all the system and change the filter, all while averaging 20kts, and surfing to 28-30kts. It was not a pleasant experience. I managed to cover myself in oil and there was some cursing. Fortunately it is running sweet, I have kept all oil I have got. I might have a go at cleaning that. But it does not look too bad. It is a silly thing to happen. It won’t be happening again.”
How does he feel after one week at sea in this eighth Vendée Globe? “I felt in the last two days that I have really found my rhythm. I am sleeping well, not needing alarms. I am really in the swing of things. I am really enjoying sailing this boat. It is one of the things, which I suppose is the same for other skippers, is when you get the chance to build, to be part of the design with the people who put together one of these machines, and then you get to go and race it. It is real honour. Half an hour ago I was in 15kts of wind doing 20kts beam reaching. That puts the biggest smile on my face. It is such a pleasure and a privilege.”
Changed engine oil yesterday? “Was that only yesterday? I don’t know what happened and it has not happened before, I think it was just the angle we were sailing down the Atlantic, water has been getting into the engine, almost undoubtedly through the pick up in the keel. Fortunately we got it the best I could. I had to do an oil change, to pump out, flush out all the system and change the filter, all while averaging 20kts, and surfing to 28-30kts. It was not a pleasant experience. I managed to cover myself in oil and there was some cursing. Fortunately it is running sweet, I have kept all oil I have got. I might have a go at cleaning that. But it does not look too bad. It is a silly thing to happen. It won’t be happening again.”
How does he feel after one week at sea in this eighth Vendée Globe? “I felt in the last two days that I have really found my rhythm. I am sleeping well, not needing alarms. I am really in the swing of things. I am really enjoying sailing this boat. It is one of the things, which I suppose is the same for other skippers, is when you get the chance to build, to be part of the design with the people who put together one of these machines, and then you get to go and race it. It is real honour. Half an hour ago I was in 15kts of wind doing 20kts beam reaching. That puts the biggest smile on my face. It is such a pleasure and a privilege.”
Sébastien Josse (Edmond de Rothschild):
“We hit a squall early this morning and the wind came around 360° and
dropped to 2 knots. It’s raining and there is a bit of residual swell.
It’s hard to see if there are squalls coming up or not. The west should
have been more favourable, but the wind direction forced us in that
direction this morning. You can’t do much once you’re in this area; it’s
down to luck, once you have chosen your point of entry. The charts
aren’t very reliable down here.”
Armel Le Cléac'h (Banque
Populaire VIII): "The Doldrums are around 140 miles wide. We’ll quickly
get to the Equator, which is less than 500 miles ahead and if we shave a
day off the reference times here and there, it’s not too bad. Until the
Cap Verdes, it was perfect for me, but after that there was a stretch,
where things weren’t trimmed right. But that’s behind me now. It’s all
part of the game. Sometimes there are bits that aren’t so good. The
others will find that too. 4 years ago, I was some way ahead at the
Equator but we found ourselves all grouped together at the Cape of Good
Hope…" About Alex: “His boat is extremely fast and we’re going to have to watch him closely. We tend to forget him, but he needs to be watched”. (www.vendeeglobe.org)
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