Vendée Globe: hard to stay chilled with ice around

The first few hours of 2025 have brought a big, unwelcome surprise. For the first time since 2008, three Vendée Globe skippers have seen an iceberg. Though they were warned in advance and the position and track were transmitted to the skippers it has been a fascinating and chilling encounter. Alerts have been sent to all the sailors currently sailing along the ice zone, right in the middle of the Pacific.

At least two icebergs had been spotted by satellite outside the Antarctic Exclusion Zone (AEZ), and their position was reckoned to be quite close to Vendée Globe competitors. Caution and vigilance was needed on this the first day of 2025 to avoid these lumps of ice which drift and break into "growlers" that are even more difficult to spot 

Trying to keep his distance, not easy 
Keeping his distance was Sébastien Marsset's intention (Foussier, 22nd), who was first to sound the alarm. Warned of a possible iceberg whose calculated drift placed it to his North, Marsset said, 

“Thirty minutes after hanging up with race management, my radar alarm went off and I had an echo four miles ahead. I stuck my head out, and straight away I saw the iceberg. There it was all hands on deck because I was at 17 knots under small gennaker! So you have to furl to avoid the iceberg. I luff up which temporarily makes me aim at it even more, I furl and I find myself 2.5 miles from the iceberg.  I try to luff but without accelerating too much, I end up taking a second reef to really slow down, and I wait a long time! Because frankly, it knocks the wind out of me, I was heading straight for it! So this iceberg had ultimately not drifted towards the North at all, but due East, so I was at the same latitude as it, and I found myself... facing it!”

Still shaken by this vision of the block about a hundred meters long the Marsset was torn between fascination and stress:

“I admit that I hadn't slept much last night, but now... it's tense! It's nerve-wracking because we're scrutinizing everything, I have all my alarms, I spent I don't know how much time outside looking at the slightest foam, thinking it was a piece of ice! I have to take a breath, everything's fine, there's another one further east, but I think I'm going to put more distance between it and its theoretical position. My idea is to take off from the ice zone, I admit that it has knocked me off my feet! The year 2025 is starting off very intensely, and I saw an iceberg for the first time in my life! "I remind you that my hull is 3.6 mm thick"

A few hours later it was Eric Bellion (STAND AS ONE – Altavia, 23rd), who filmed the icy monster at 54° south:

I admire our pioneers, on the first round-the-world trips they went there, it took a good dose of courage and surely a bit of recklessness too, respect to them! On a daily basis it's already muscular so if you add the spice of the ice... for January 1st, a little gift from the Pacific Ocean! It's scary. The boat and I don't act smart! I remind you that my hull is 3.6 mm thick, I can't afford to hit that. Icebergs are beautiful with expedition boats equipped with steel hulls but not with our carbon racing boats.
ÉricBellionSTAND AS ONE - ALTAVIA

A little further north, Guirec Soudée (Freelance.com, 2nd), his body still badly bruised by a shock that, ten days ago, had sent him flying across his IMOCA like a rag doll, also told us about his hours of vigil with fear in his stomach:

“ I slowed down the pace, I was doing 18-20 knots with peaks above, so I said hophophophop. I have already hit ice at 4-5 knots with a steel boat, it was already not very pleasant, so with a carbon boat I prefer not to think about it! It spices up the race a little and it is still a little stressful, I am on my radar, every 20 minutes I go outside, we can see the horizon well so that is cool.”

Further behind New Zealander Conrad Colman (MS Amlin, 29th) saw the sun starting to set and it was just before dusk that the gigantic silhouette appeared again detached on its horizon, even allowing the Kiwi to launch his drone to film the natural wonder from closer up…

Richomme closing 
Meanwhile at the front of the fleet the two leaders are fighting through light winds again, a band of high pressure standing between them and the SE’ly trade winds, Charlie Dalin (MACIF Santé Prévoyance) is now only about 14 miles ahead of Yoann Richomme (PAPREC ARKÉA). Both were making about seven knots.

For the group of boats climbing the South Atlantic together, bidding farewell to the exclusion zone to their east, conditions are quite unpleasant upwind in an unsteady breeze,

In eighth Sam Goodchild on  VULNERABLE reports, “ The boat is OK these are not the most comfortable conditions, there is a bit of slamming and waves, it is not too bad but the wind is less and less stable as we go along, before it was fairly stable, and so it takes more and more management between the squall clouds, trying to keep the boat going, between tacking and sail trim, it is quite tiring. The boat is maybe starting to sound a bit tired, there are creaks and groans in a few places and there are a few things to keep on  top of but on the whole we are in good shape and so I cannot complain. Life on board is not that easy. With the physical side it is not that easy with the slamming it is quite difficult to find somewhere different on board. With the strategy calls it is not that easy to make a strategy with the low which is evolving around us and there being no clear preferred option I between going east and having quite strong winds or going west and having no wind and probably some storm clouds, and then trying to get through this low which is building, none of these options appeal to me that much but these are the only ones which exist, and so it is trying to find the best one. So, yes, the South Atlantic is proving to be not simple, but as it is down here with the cold water coming from the south, the warm water in the north and the Andes not too far away it is an area where the weather is dynamic. 

Paul did a good job committing early to a strategy and it paid off for him, so god on him, I was hesitant on that as I though he would be more impacted by storm clouds in that, but Paul played it perfectly. There is some boat speed advantages generally, HOLCIM and Charal are two vey quick boats upwind, so trying to keep up with them is not easy. But I am hanging in there. Tonight and today have been complicated for sleep trying to get the boat set up with these storm clouds, with 40, 50 maybe 90 degree wind shifts, so I have had everything from 5 knots to 30 knots and so it is not very easy to leave the boat on its own for very long, and so I am hoping we will have a bit better conditions for sleeping tonight, but it is not very promising at the moment.
There is a big low forming where there is no preferred option either go through the middle, go west for no wind, go east for quite a lot of wind and right now it is looking like we will try to go through the middle of it, it is a fairly fast evolving situation. It is pretty stressful and so it is not something I am finding very pleasant at the moment
Boris is closest to me at the moment and I am going OK against him generally. But it is hard to compare what is boatspeed and what is wind shifts, what is playing the clouds right and getting the right clouds at the right time. But when we were together lined up I was going OK, able to match him or maybe even a little bit faster at times which is encouraging. So  I am just trying to keep hanging in there, chipping away.”

Tough on the runway to the Horn for Attanasio 
Romain Attanasio is approaching Cape Horn, “I'm sitting in front of my seat in front of my slate that says Cape Leeuwin December 14, and I was just thinking that it's been a long way to get here! I don't want to jinx it, I haven't rounded Cape Horn yet, but it's true that... the Indian Ocean was tough but the Pacific was almost worse in fact! The two previous Vendée Globes I was told the Pacific was great, you'll see, I hadn't thought of I any other way, but this time it was really worse! Crazy! We're still in the storm now, with horrible seas, and I think we'll still have 40 knots when we reach Cape Horn in 36 hours! It's not crazy.

My current conditions are downwind 25-30 knots, with really complicated seas. I passed the depression that hit us from the South, I had to go around it by passing just below it, it was a complicated route and far from direct, and that's how it is, but since then the sea is quite rough, the boat is digging in a lot. I have a jibe in 5 hours and then I'm heading towards Cape Horn which I should reach on the 3rd during the night, French time... with a lot of northwest wind coming down from Chile, very strong. It's not going to be fun until the Cape!”