Vendée Globe Day 58, the battle in the Atlantic is still open

For the leader Charlie Dalin and for second placed Yoann Richomme the finish of their Vendée Globe does start to feel close. They need to remain 100% focused of course and know the pitfalls that have befallen skippers before in the final phase of the solo non stop race around the world, but tomorrow could be their last full Wednesday at se, for example. In a week’s time they should be well into the Bay of Biscay and dealing with the final sprint to the line. And right now, although Dalin, skipper of MACIF Santé Prévoyance is 115 miles ahead of Richomme (PAPREC ARKÉA), it is still too close to call.

Even more open is the battle for fourth down to 10th. There has been a reshuffle at Cabo Frio, north of Rio. Short term gains are with the skippers who have elected to stay west – closer to the rhumb line – so Jérémie Beyou (Charal) in fourth, Sam Goodchild (VULNERABLE) in fifth and Boris Herrmann (Malizia-Seaexplorer) in sixth. But while their gain may be short term and will depend on their ability to work back to the east progressively to find the SE’ly trade winds, Nico Lunven (HOLCIM PRB) and Paul Meilhat (Biotherm) continue their investment to the east, - largely avoiding the worst of the ridge of hight pressure and light winds – but it is not clear which group will come out on top. 

Not easy 
Lunven expands, “ This climb up the South Atlantic is not easy, I knew it from having done it previously on the Volvo Ocean Race or as a router on land for Armel Le Cléac’h last winter, I know that this part is not easy, and it is underlined here! A complicated part in terms of weather, we have very unstable conditions, lots of storms – I haven’t had any too violent yet but still some very disruptive squalls. There is also a nasty chop, for example today it could have been a great day of sailing, there was 10-15 knots of wind reaching, under J0, but I have a chop in my head, the boat is slamming, it’s hell! So it’s noisy, it shakes, and it’s not going very fast, so it’s frustrating! On top of that I have some small problems, three days ago my masthead was torn off, along with the antennas and the aerials, so that means steering in compass mode only! I have a spare aerial on a pole at the back, which is already a great help, but unfortunately not enough to steer effectively in wind mode! So that means compass mode and always having to adjust the sails or adjust the boat's trajectory with the remote control, it's tiring and exhausting! As soon as there is a bit of stability, I take the opportunity to go to sleep, setting alarms everywhere so that I can wake up quickly if the boat slows down! When you are able to be on it on usual 100% wind mode, I think that it does not hinder the boat's performance too much, but on the other hand it requires a very significant investment, and the time I spend doing that, I do not spend it doing weather, resting, etc. For the rest on the other hand it is not too serious, I have a VHF antenna at the back which allows me to pick up the AIS system quite satisfactorily, I am quite surprised, so that is good for safety! Otherwise apart from that, the rest is fine. But it is especially annoying at night, because obviously I only have storms at night, the weather is nice during the day! I have squalls and storms at night, and as the wind force is not at all reliable with my spare wind, the direction is ok, but the direction not at all, when the wind goes from 10 to 30 knots with a 50 or 100 degree shift, then if you don't have your eyes wide open... when it's pitch black and you can't see anything, and the boat is leaving, racing at 30 knots and you don't even really know where the wind is coming from and the force that has it, I already have a lot of hair left but I'm losing a little more! Otherwise apart from that it's a shame, because the boat is great. I had a small hydraulic leak at the keel, but it seems to be just a nut that must have become loose and come loose, so if that's all it is, it's nothing. But as it is very difficult to access, to get your hands and a key through, it was not easy, but yesterday I managed to give it a little unexpected tightening, and it seems that it is no longer leaking, let's hope it lasts!” 

In terms of strategy, I went for an Eastern option, we'll see how it goes. For the moment I am not unhappy with my option in the sense that I managed not to stop in calm weather, I always had wind to move forward. I hope that will be the case until the end! We have the semi-permanent front of South America which starts from Cabo Frio and crosses the Atlantic towards the South-East, diagonally. It is as its name indicates semi-permanent, so it is not there all the time but almost, it is not an evolving front linked to a depression like we know in Western Europe. And along this front, which has a stormy character, especially along Brazil where the water is warm and it is hot, depressions form on the continent of South America and cross the South Atlantic, basically following it! And we have to cross all that. The questions are ultimately quite simple: either a direct route, close to the coast but generally the front tends to widen close to the coast, and narrow offshore... so either we try our luck close to the coast by telling ourselves that we are taking a more direct route but with perhaps less wind, or we tell ourselves that we are going around offshore, by extending the route, but having a less wide difficult area to cross, and in a second phase, when we have crossed this front, we switch to the trade winds, that is to say the wind that will switch to the North-East, then to the East. So going offshore also allows us to play this rotation on the right side! But it requires a lot of driving, and we are never safe from being stopped along the way a little more than expected in this potentially stormy semi-permanent front! I left in this Eastern option with Paul Meilhat a priori, and all the others left rather on land, we will see! For the moment I am not able to say if it will work or not! On the other hand, I amis able to say that I am happy with the wind I have because even if I have sometimes complicated weather situations at night, but I have always managed to move forward while I see on the latest reports that my comrades on land are starting to slow down! It is normal that they slow down, after they will do much less route... In two or three days, we will see what this story of options gives, I am not taking it too much, I had decided to do that, for a long time the routings had been making me do that! We fell a little behind, so the routings started to change their tune, but I am a stubborn guy so I looked at the thing carefully and I still believed that the offshore option seemed to me to be the best, or at least the least risky, with the least possible calm. Still a little afraid of getting stuck especially when a few days ago we had a day at a complete standstill! So I hope to be out of this front tomorrow to catch the trade winds, which unfortunately aren't very well established, that's the small downside, but I hope it will still be satisfactory to tack and head north towards the Doldrums!
NicolasLunvenHOLCIM - PRB

Behind them the next mini group of three sees a similar conundrum, Benjamin Dutreux (Guyot Environnement) is going offshore to the east, on the Meilhat-Lunven option, whilst Clarisse Crémer (L’Occitaine en Provence) seems to be erring to the Brazilian coast. 

Sam Davies (Initiatives Coeur) is sailing into the light band and is a little under threat from Jean Le Cam (Tout commence en Finistère-Armor lux) who seems to have had a charmed ride since his seventh Cape Horn. 

Who's next at the Horn? 
Charismatic race rookie Benjamin Ferré (Monnoyeur Duo for a Job) will be next to Cape Horn this morning whilst the group behind look set to have quite sporty conditions over the next couple of days. In the thick of it, moved all the way up to 22nd place is Conrad Colman (MS AMLIN). The Kiwi reports today, “ Two months at sea is a long time! I'm a little jealous that the first ones will be home in a few days now and will be able to pick up their children from school, for Yoann in any case! I'm in a small pack, the competition is intense, it's exciting! I think that two months at sea without direct competitors would have been difficult to fight for every mile... at least here it is good sport! I'm glued to the screens, I'm doing everything to go as fast as possible while staying safe, so it's stimulating. The current conditions are quite easy, 30 knots of wind. The boat is a mix between being a submarine and an airplane! Sometimes you dance above the waves, sometimes below! But the sun is shining, the batteries are charging well with the solar panels, so I don't have to stress about it. Soon, it will be my fourth rounding of Cape Horn!”

Room for improvement....

 
And Chinese skipper JungKin Xu is saving his learnings and still, generally, full of positivity, “Two months at sea, I'm starting to feel tired! Especially the shoulder injury, it continues to bother me, especially as it gets worse. Morally, at the beginning of this race I was really enjoying the navigation, I was very excited, but in the last few days I'm starting to feel alone and to experience solitude! In the last few days, I encountered a zone of very light wind, but as it was close-hauled, it wasn't that easy! Since today, I've started sailing downwind again, it's much more pleasant, but in two days there should be a storm again... On the Pacific, so far I think it's going well, much more stable than the Indian Ocean! I'm happy with my position, it exceeded my expectations! I miss my family and friends a lot, and I finished all the fresh fruit on the ground, and I miss it so much… This Vendée Globe, I wouldn’t have thought that I would be in such a good mood, I enjoy sailing every day, and I can stay positive to pass on lots of information to my friends and the public! I thought at the beginning that it would be extremely difficult, but so far I feel like I can still do better in the future, I still have room for improvement!”