Vendee Globe: Christmas done right for Seb Simon, at Cape Horn

Like an over excited youngster on Christmas morning, Seb Simon (Groupe Dubreuil) had to wait until after breakfast time before he could pass Cape Horn for his first time. But for all that some patience was required of the skipper from Les Sables d’Olonne, he was rewarded by what might be described as ‘brochure conditions’, winds gusting to 47kts and a fierce, dark slate grey sea.

Much as he would have liked to have been granted a picture-postcard passage such as was afforded  the two leaders late on Monday night and into Tuesday morning, Simon passed more than 30 miles off, seeking to avoid the lee of the high, bluff land and to find a more consistent breeze and some searoom. 

Seb Simon passed at 0921hrs UTC this morning, 1 day 9 hours after leader Richomme. Full of the joys of exiting the Pacific, Simon exclaimed,"Thank you Pacific, ciao Big South and long live the Atlantic.  That is a big thing done", added the skipper of Groupe Dubreuil who, like the two up in front of him has slowed to boat speeds in single figures. 

Richomme extends at Falklands 
From having passed Cape Horn with a slender 9 minutes between them, Yoann Richomme has seen his lead over Charlie Dalin grow to close to 100 miles by this Christmas afternoon. His westing, running the ice exclusion zone on his starboard side, saw him retain the breeze for longer than Dalin who slowed first in the zone of lighter winds. But Richomme’s speeds eased too this morning, 

“I have just woken up, when I went to sleep I was doing 25kts and when I woke up we are doing 7kts. But a bit of calm is good". After the best part of a month of big seas and winds on the Southern Ocean, the feeling of decompressing on the Atlantic climb is almost inevitable given their benign weather.  And Richomme looked a different sailor today, able to sit upright in his custom sprung chair  and having the pleasure of walking round his boat near to upright and not being pinballed off the walls of his boat. 

"The sea has been great since rounding Cape Horn. Since rounding we have had great conditions with a generally very fast crosswind. That allowed us to make good progress towards the North,"

Richomme, as ever is not getting get carried away though and remains focused on the transition phase that he will have to negotiate before hitting the wind to speed up to the latitude of Rio de Janeiro. "I need to recover a bit and there's a bit of cleaning to do on board the boat," said the sailor who is also relishing the gradually rising temperatures. The fur hat and big socks should go back in his bag. 

I passed with more than 40 knots of wind and rough seas, which didn't stop it from being the best Christmas present!
SébastienSimonGroupe Dubreuil

Climbing through the fleet.
But others are still feeling the chill in the Furious Fifties, "It's really, really cold!" confirmed Justine Mettraux (TeamWork - Groupe Snef) in 10th. In the SW’ies blowing straight off the frozen Antarctic she saus she has so many layers on but still says it's freezing The  icy water seeps in everywhere and the sailor’s breath turns to vapour. Her attention is entirely  focused on her race as, like Boris Herrmann (Malizia – Seaexplorer), Mettraux is making a remarkable comeback into the group led by Thomas Ruyant (VULNERABLE). “The weather helped me a lot because I had more wind than those in front these last 24 hours. Now I see Yannick (Bestaven) and Paul (Meilhat) on the AIS. It’s great to have found them again. It’s a bit unexpected because they were quite far away!” 

Back to the future 
One way or another Christmas always becomes a special moment for the sailors of the Vendée Globe and more especially for those who, like Jean Le Cam (Tout Commence en Finistère – Armor-lux), Isabelle Joschke (MACSF), Giancarlo Pedote (Prysmian) and Alan Roura (Hublot), have recently crossed the antimeridian and therefore get two Christmases, a cool reminder that time travel is possible on an IMOCA.