Vendée Globe: Approaching the first cape >> Scuttlebutt Sailing News:

a-solitary-sea-rover:

Charlie Dalin, the Vendée Globe race leader, should pass the longitude of the Cape of Good Hope tomorrow, the first of the mythical 24,296 nautical miles solo round the world’s three Great Capes.

Dalin’s lead remains steady ahead of Thomas Ruyant (LinkedOut) while Jean Le Cam (Yes We Cam!) and Kevin Escoffier (PRB) have been trading third place during today. With the lead pack now as far south as 42° latitude, Sam Davies on Initiatives-Coeur reports how the game is changing:

“I gybed just before Gough Island, in the clement zone close behind the front with 25 knots of wind but rapidly the breeze built and the instability arrived. It felt a little bit close to Gough Island for comfort so I furled the A7 in order to sail a clear enough course to pass safely to the South West of Gough.

“My feeling was correct as rapidly I encountered the first big gust – 40 knots of wind. The sea state has built. When the breeze goes from 25 to 40 in the middle of the night for the first time, you get caught by surprise! So a little ‘wipe out’ (thank goodness the A7 was already furled!) and Initiatives-Coeur lay flat on her side with a nice cold wave breaking over her!

“Ease all the sheets and back on our feet (that too is a scary maneuver as you have to bear away but not too far so as to avoid a Chinese Gybe on the way out!)

“So then the tricky bit is to find a trim and sail set-up for 22 to 42 knots of wind speed! That’s not easy, when you are sailing solo and you need to rest a little and not stay all night in the cockpit with the sheets in your (cold) hands! It’s a frustrating compromise with a lot of time ‘down speed’ and other heart-palpitating moments of extreme acceleration down waves with a little too much wind.

“Inevitably, I did a few more little wipe-outs, but the night is over, nothing is broken and the average wind speed is starting to drop… later I should be able to deploy a bigger sail and get going a bit faster. The albatrosses that are gliding around in my wake are having fun! In the meantime, I am going to put a thicker pair of socks on because my feet are blocks of ice!”

Reposted from https://lies.tumblr.com/post/636225591979425792.

Tags: I haven’t obsessed in a while about boats here, but the vendée globe is threatening to break through.

This entry was posted by jbc on Monday, November 30th, 2020 at 8:50 am and is filed under Tumblr. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.