Vendée Globe, Azores high beckons for leaders, a final hurdle?

Just over 400 miles northwest of the Cape Verde islands the two Vendée Globe leaders are making good progress northwards although Charlie Dalin (MACIF Santé Prévoyance) is starting to slow due to the lighter winds of the Azores high pressure zone’s lighter winds.

The worst of the gentler winds look to be about 400 miles wide accompanies by the clockwise rotation of the wind direction which means they will emerge on more downwind angles. This should allow Yoann Richomme (PAPREC ARKÉA) to catch back some of the 180 miles he is behind. 

Seb Simon (Groupe Dubreuil) in his solid third place is making a steady 21 knots in the NE’ly trades, modulating his attack to maintain his boat at its maximum capacity and preserve himself at maximum lucidity. He has over 1500 miles of margin now with just under twice that distance to go to the finish line in his native Les Sables d’Olonne. 

Goodchild fourth 

Starting to get into more consistent breezes after the very challenging disruptive vagaries of Cabo Frio and the cold front there, Briton Sam Goodchild (VULNERABLE) holds fourth place in the strategic battle which is playing out slowly. Goodchild’s westerly position is working for the moment but he will be at a tighter angle in the climb to the SE’ly trades but he has breeze this morning and is about seven miles ahead of fifth placed Jérémie Beyou (CHARAL). 

Goodchild reported this morning, “We have passed the hardest part of the Cabo Frio front, which is cool, we are going to look for the shift in the East for the trade winds, there are still a few squalls around for us but they are relatively small. We are making between 10 and 15 knots upwind, it is slamming a little but less than before, so it makes life on board much nicer! It is not going very fast, but we can't have everything, and we are going to tack during the night or tomorrow morning to go North and watch for our passage of the Doldrums! 

He added, "We have routings that are starting to finish us in Les Sables d'Olonne, so a little over 15 days to go, that's really cool! I am keeping a close eye on the boat since everything is starting to get tired, there are more and more problems appearing on all the boats, I have small details to deal with and I continue to monitor. I can't wait to catch up on my sleep because we had two difficult days with the cold front yesterday, squalls everywhere, lightning, thunder, we couldn't really rest!

Looking east 

Nico Lunven (HOLCIM PRB) and Paul Meilhat (Biotherm) are still pressing east looking for the better breeze to tack into the more consistent trade winds, their long term investment sees them eighth and ninth.

Next to really hit the front and the unsettled area is Clarisse Crémer (L’Occitaine en Provence) and Sam Davies (Initiatives Coeur) who has now caught up the best part of 600 miles on the main group and in terms of miles is in a much better position but she and Crémer have this very difficult weather hurdle to cross.

Some 800 miles further south Damien Seguin (Groupe Apicil), Roman Attanasio (FORTINET BEST WESTERN) and Jean Le Cam (Tout commence en Finistère-Armor lux) are in fighting to get out of a wide band of high pressure, sailing east.

Seguin is enjoying the marked change from the Big South, “The first few days in the Atlantic are very, very different from what we experienced in the South and especially the last few days in the Pacific Ocean before rounding Cape Horn. The conditions are not the same, it's almost the opposite, so it's not the same stress at all! It's more relaxing in a way - physically in particular - but it's more complex on a mental level because it's an ocean that is much more open tactically speaking! Seguin continues, 

We've been snared in a high pressure ridge for almost two days, I say we because we arrived together with Romain! And we saw the two guys from behind come back, Jean and Alan! I was listening to the last Vendée Live who were saying that Jean was exceptional, who were saying that he was sailing straight lines, what a strategy! But there is no strategy in making straight lines, it is just an opportunity that the weather gives you, so for it’s really three or four weeks now that Jean has been lucky in terms of weather sequences! It allowed him to get back to our level, and now like us he is struggling with the calm, so we will set off again together. For us it is complicated, we had worked hard to build that gap and seeing them come back so easily, it is not easy to take, but it is part of this race and it is not the first time either! I took the opportunity to make small repairs, to dry the boat out because it was very damp inside, to rest too, and then try to find a way for the rest of this climb up the South Atlantic. What is certain is that it is not going to be a fast Vendée Globe for me, I passed Cape Horn 3 days ahead of my time from four years ago, and I think I have already almost lost them! I'll finish when I get there. The main idea is to finish this Round the World, we'll be a group of at least four, we'll see how long we're still stuck with this anticyclone, find out if there are still others behind us who will come back to us even more!

New experiences 

And for the race rookie, 23 year old shining star Violette Dorange (Devenir), Cape Horn is at just under 100 miles to her first Cape Horn but remains slowed to let a bad low go through, she reports this morning, “It's really unsettling to have the sails furled, to go as slowly as possible, I had to slow down for two or three days so it's long and it's not even easy because the boat is going too fast! It’s also a bit disturbing to see the other competitors round Cape Horn and tell me that I was with them a few days ago, but on the other hand I don’t regret it at all, I know that what I’m doing is good, it’s safe! I didn’t want to find myself in 50 knots and gusts of 60! What was hard was making the decision, I hesitated a lot, but once I made it I never had too many doubts! I’ve looked at the situation from every angle and I know that it’s the best option for me! I should round the cape around tonight around 7pm, I’ll start to slowly accelerate again at the end of the day. This Cape represents the end of the Southern Ocean, and that’s great because I’m starting to get very cold, I don’t have any heating on board! So I'm going to start recovering in the warmer Atlantic conditions, and the winds I hope will gradually become a little less strong, it'll feel good. And then it marks my fourth objective on the course, and I'm so happy to have made it this far. Afterwards I think it's going to be very emotional too, I've never seen Cape Horn, I don't know it at all,

Dorange has ongoing engine problems 

I have an engine oil leak, we think it's the cylinder head gasket that's damaged and let water in. I've lost a lot of oil in my engine, I can't count on it until I get there. I can maybe turn it on once or twice, for ten minutes at least, otherwise it'll stall very quickly and break down. So I don't have any engine, I'll make do with my two hydrogen generators and my solar panels. I wasn't feeling well because of that yesterday because I started to stress and say to myself "what happens if I can't charge my batteries", but today I rationalize a little more, I tell myself that there's no point in worrying as long as my batteries are good and I can charge, there's no point in anticipating too much either! I just have to stay vigilant, make my way and be careful, monitor my consumption carefully... I have to pray that it works but there's a chance that it will! I continue and try to worry as little as possible.