Vendee Glove Ocean Sailing, Cold Ahead Hot Behind

Leaders brace for numbing cold as Boissierès reports 63 knots

Whilst the rest of the fleet struggle to deal with either no wind or too much only the leader and Francois Gabart (Macif) and Armel Le Cléac’h (Banque Populaire) seem to be masters of their own universe. But even they will need to brace themselves for the cold to come as, 950 miles south of Australia, they dive down into the freezing Furious Fifties for the first time.

Jean-Pierre Dick (Virbac-Paprec 3), who appeared to have stemmed the losses of the previous 24 hours, in third place, reported the change on Saturday afternoon as he reached 48 degrees south.

"I'm 48 ° south and it's getting cold,” Dick said. “I had numbness in my fingers going on deck this morning. The cold pierces the bone. It’s about 5 ° C, the same for the water. The spray (shower) during the first light of day was chilly.”

"The good news is that the anticyclone will not catch me. It's good to get out of this windless mess. It was time."

Dick had lost 200 miles to the two in front but was making a far more healthy 14 knots at the 1600 ranking (French time). Le Cléac’h continues to average 18 knots with Gabart slowly drawing to 52.2 miles ahead by making consistently over 19 knots.

Sailing in winds that are suddenly jumping from 20 to 40 knots and messy seas, the two men, who both passed Cape Leeuwin on Friday night in record time, usually put their happiest spin on testing times, but on Saturday: "all is well in my boat, there have been beautiful sunsets" did not really cut it. Both admitted – in Gabart’s case only for the second time in the reace, that the relentless pace in difficult conditions was not coming easy. "It is exhausting," Le Cléac'h said. "The sea is bad, it’s not easy in these conditions," confessed Gabart. Although he couldn’t resist a: “I’m trying to show you the sunset I can see from here, it’s beautiful.” It could be that Gabard is preternaturally calm as well as proficient, or it could be that his mentor, Michel Desjoyeaux, the two-time Vendée winner, has taught him a thing or three about the psychology of demoralising your rivals. Either way it is working.

Two and a half thousand miles behind the leaders, Arnaud Boissières (Akena Verandas) had a bigger beat to wrestle and was having to be conservative as winds gusted up to 63 knots. “Right now I’m lying on the floor because I just can’t stand up on board,” Boissières said on Vendée Globe TV - whilst keeping a close eye on the conditions. “It’s shaking a lot. I haven’t been able to sleep that much, of course. I had 63-knot gusts! When that happens, the boat goes really fast (he reported 33 knots) but my average speed isn’t that high, though. I knew the front was coming, so I prepared for it, I slept last night and since then, I’ve only slept twice, half an hour each time.”

Javier Sansó (Acciona 100% EcoPowered) was making good speed but was also being pushed rather than pushing as he made up over 200 miles in 24 hours to Dominique Wavre (Mirabaud). Like Boissières, Sansó had big cross seas, with four metre swells coming from the north-west and south-west, but he had a more manageable is still ferocious 34-40 knots to deal with.

http://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/