The British skipper reported to his team today that
he is fair shape, physically and mentally, but was very much looking
forward to quieter weather. Alex is still crawling around the boat. It is impossible to move
around at all. He is pretty tired as you would expect. But he seems to
be OK.” Ross Daniel, the Alex Thomson Racing Technical Director confirmed this afternoon.
Le Cléac’h has strengthened his position to lead by 190 miles this
Saturday afternoon and as Thomson passed to the north of Auckland Island
today, the French skipper was on a course more than 100 miles south of
his, already angling more south-east.
Le Cléac’h will skirt the
Antarctic Exclusion Zone, with the objective of getting under the centre
of the new low pressure to break into the northerly breeze first.
Thomson’s route to the north means more miles in theory but while Le
Cléac’h may well have some time with a tighter wind angle – possibly
even upwind – Thomson is looking to get into the faster downwind
conditions on the top
side of the low. It is a question of timing. If it works out for Le
Cléac’h it could add significantly to his margin. But other routings
today suggest there could still just be hours between them in four days’
time.
Romain Attanasio is delighted to be back on the racecourse after
completing a repair in Simon’s Town to the south-east of Cape Town. The
French skipper of Famille Mary- Étamine du Lys had a two-metre
long delamination on his hull as well as having to replace one rudder
with a spare and making an accomplished composite repair to the other
snapped blade.
After a diversion which has cost him five ‘crazy’ days, Attanasio has
set off in pursuit of Didac Costa who had to return to Les Sables
d’Olonne one hour after the start because of a flood inside the boat. He
took up the course again four days later and is now some 200 miles
ahead of Attanasio, setting up the prospect of a nice duel between
skippers with famous IMOCAs which have already seen their share of round
the world races.
Attanasio’s boat is the 1998 Lombard design, former Whirlpool, which raced the last edition as Tanguy de Lamotte’s Initiatives Coeur. Meantime Costa – who passed the Cape of Good Hope at 0537hrs this morning- has already raced one lap of the planet on the 2000 Owen Clarke Design, Ellen MacArthur’s former Kingfisher.
Attanasio’s boat is the 1998 Lombard design, former Whirlpool, which raced the last edition as Tanguy de Lamotte’s Initiatives Coeur. Meantime Costa – who passed the Cape of Good Hope at 0537hrs this morning- has already raced one lap of the planet on the 2000 Owen Clarke Design, Ellen MacArthur’s former Kingfisher.
The fireman and co-skipper Aleix Gelabert were impressive in their sheer
consistency in the last Barcelona World Race, and Costa is back making
the same high, regular average speeds.
Attanasio is the only skipper of this race so far to make a successful repair, leaving the rarefied Vendée Globe bubble to interact with the outside world.
Attanasio is the only skipper of this race so far to make a successful repair, leaving the rarefied Vendée Globe bubble to interact with the outside world.
As ever one battle was to make sure there was no inadvertent outside
assistance which would break the race rules. He was approached by many
curious canoeists at the popular tourist spot which is close to the HQ
of the South African Navy, and was even offered cans of Coke and
stickers by one woman.
His lasting impression, other than the frenetic efforts to make his
repairs, was the sheer, sudden unadulterated silence after one month of
banging and crashing and constant movement at sea.Attanasio recalled:
“It was quite special to find myself at anchor right next to the
coast in the middle of the Vendée Globe. The first day, people were
circling the boat in canoes. They came to talk to me and one lady even
wanted to give me some coke and stickers. I told her I couldn’t take
them as I might be disqualified. What struck me most when I arrived
though was the silence. I’d been living in a noisy environment and
suddenly… nothing! I began to talk very softly. It was a funny feeling.”
Rich Wilson (USA) Great American IV: “It is all
good. The boat is fine and I am good too. I had to get up pretty quickly
in the night to get the fractional gennaker rolled up and that was OK.
But it was a beautiful night, the stars were out, the moon was out, the
albatross are out today, and it is one of these days when you wish every
day in the southern ocean is like that. But it isn’t. You have to still
stand your guard. I have been getting more sleep. I have had a couple
of episodes recently. Once I had a front came through with two reefs in
the main and the fractional gennaker up and suddenly we had 48kts of
wind, and suddenly the boat just took off like a submarine. You can’t
imagine how much water there was over the boat. And we hit a speed of
over 30kts. Fortunately I got the gennaker rolled up without damage.
That was a close call not just for that sail, but who knows what else
might have broken? I never, ever want to see that kind of speed again.
Those kind of high speeds bring high risk. It has been nice with Eric
Bellion and Alain Roura. We have had a very nice email exchange which
brings some humanity to the southern ocean."
(www.vendeeglobe.org)
(www.vendeeglobe.org)
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