Vendée Globe: Southern Ocean sundays

Leader Charlie Dalin (MACIF Santé Prévoyance) has slowed slightly as he starts the passage along the Australian safety barrier now in a more moderate breeze, his precise course, the timing of his gybe along the exclusion zone reflecting the skills of a skipper who is on top of his meteo strategy game.

He still has just under 500 miles to Cape Leeuwin so it seems less likely he could topple the 2016 race record to the Australian cape, especially as it is not straight line sailing. He will need to put in numerous gybes as in the WNW’ly wind he is all but downwind and the breeze looks more likely to lift him as he goes. 

Steady as she goes 
Dalin’s lead is steady over second placed Seb Simon (Groupe Dubreuil) whilst Yoann Richomme (PAPREC ARKÉA) and Thomas Ruyant (VULNERABLE) have a good angle on their SE’ly track and see their deficit to Charlie steadied. 
Behind them Sam Goodchild (VULNERABLE) is up to fifth but dead level with Charal’s Jérémie Beyou who is much further north and now looks like he will lay the corner of the Australian exclusion zone on this gybe. 

The tight group of four behind see Sam Davies (Initiatives Coeur) having pulled back a few miles into the little pack of pals which sees 50 odd miles between 13th placed Clarisse Crémer (L’Occitane en Provence ) along with Boris Herrmann (Malizia Seaexplorer) and tenth placed Justine Mettraux (TeamWork-Team Snef) 

ANOTHER NO SUN SUNDAY, EVEN FOR SAM! 
They have good conditions for going fast as Davies reported overnight, “It is freezing here in the night, 6 degrees Celsius in the cockpit, the water is 5 degrees, all is good and we are just approaching the plateau to the north of the Kerguelen Islands. We have just had the one big depression which was a little less intense for us than the leaders, it all went well. These boats are really powerful and so you had to really find the right settings and I was lucky enough have the experience of racing on Biotherm on The Ocean Race in terms of managing these Southern Ocean conditions which are so very different to anywhere else in the Atlantic, there are different settings with the foil and I have a pretty good small fractional sail which seems good, it is small but not too small, and so I don’t get the FR0 out any more, I just put that sail up and it does everything. Then I is all about anticipation, doing things before it is too late. These boats are powerful I prefer to slightly underpowered a lot of the time, rather than being caught out as the gusts are way more powerful. That is when you are going to damage stuff, so I try to be organised. And sleeping as well to be alert and keeping up the energy. 

The low behind us where Pip and Romain are is quite a big one so hopefully we are staying ahead of us and it should not be too violent and this should take us top the Australian exclusion zone. Which would be pretty cool. It is the middle of the night and I have just been doing some weather routing and it is a lot warmer in my bunk, the boat is sailing nicely, all set up on this stretch we are doing right now. During the last 24 hours it has been nice reaching, 100-100 degrees true wind angle, fast reaching with a decent sea state, which is good as I struggled with the leftover sea state before from the low in front of us with the currents which really made it difficult, but the last 24 hours have been great, really good for going fast and I think I did a 500 miles day which I am pretty pleased with and I have managed to catch up with my little group which I am happy about. So that is cool. It is cold. It is grey. It is humid. Typical southern Indian Ocean conditions, you don’t really know when daylight starts and it becomes night, there is no difference, you cannot see the sun rising. It is standard Southern Ocean sailing conditions, but flat water so I can’t complain.”

HARE'S HAPPY AND TOASTY
And some 450 miles behind, in the heart of the system which is chasing Davies’ foursome, Pip Hare is happy too, relishing a few easier miles…. “It has been quite a good night for me. I have ended up in exactly the position I wanted to be in which is just to the north of the centre of this low pressure, there is a band of breeze that is just a little bit less and the water a little bit less and I have been able to sail quite fast ahead of it. It is interesting to watch the satellite pictures overhead as it is doesn’t move in a linear fashion, I would get ahead and it would catch me up and so on. But because it is flat water sailing I have been able to bank a bit of sleep as well, the heater is on and it is toasty down here. I actually got into the sleeping bag which was amazing. So it is all going to change today as the low is going to catch me up. Out on deck it is really cold, very wet, just heavy, wet air. And so I am digging around looking for more layers and waterproof things for going on deck. Today the low will pass over me and my the end of the day I will gybe but it is going well at the moment and so I am quite a happy Pip.”