Pip Hare’s winning legions of fans as Beyou chases (Vendée Globe update 7Jan21)

With 1300 miles to sail to Cape Horn, this next week will be the toughest of British skipper Pip Hare’s Vendée Globe. With her autopilot system compromised due to the lack of true wind direction and strength data input, Hare is having to constantly adjust her course manually using the pilot’s remote keypad which means she is on high alert all the time, leaving her little time to sleep and eat.

Her race – and her colourful and factual communication of it – has won her legions of fans and followers of all ages and all around the globe, increasingly in France.

“The thing is that I have so many friends who are not sailing and people following us who are not into sailing who have no understanding of what I am doing out here, it is good to be able to share the experience,” says Hare

Jérémie Beyou on the foiling Charal (pictured above) – who had to restart nine days after the start – is around 200 miles behind Hare. He’s less than happy with the Pacific conditions.

“I don’t know who invented the name Pacific, because I’ve never seen it peaceful in three circumnavigations of the world.”

Hear from skippers around the fleet in this delightful clip, full of joy and good weather.

Pip Hare is finding it hard

Hare has her autopilot permanently attached – she’s sensitive to Medallia and constantly making tiny little alterations.

“Medallia is hard work in these conditions especially without the wind information. To check the sails, and do any trimming requires a trip on deck out into the elements. I am trying to do this every couple of hours at least. The main concern is that my course is downwind VMG so I need to steer Medallia as far downwind as the sail plan will let me. This means that I can’t really sleep for long at all as the pilot is steering on compass mode and if there is a slight shift in the wind Medallia could crash gybe.

“I have the pilot remote in my hand permanently and am making small course alterations depending on what apparent wind angle I can see on the instruments below and what the mainsail looks like through the window in the coach roof. I am managing with 10 minute dozes, walking just the right side of my red line very focussed on just keeping it all together to get through this bit of breeze. I am hoping to gybe and for the wind to drop in the next 12 hours which should allow me to sail Medallia on a less risky angle and so get some proper sleep for a while.

“I said these last days in the Southern Ocean would be challenging and so far the experience has been incredibly intense. It’s a full on experience that has every part of me working hard. There is no respite and at the moment Cape Horn doesn’t seem to be getting any closer with each new routing that I plot.”

Watch Hare’s latest vlog (20.38 6Jan21)

Miranda Merron is loving the sunshine

′′It’s a beautiful day of sunshine and blue sky… and now no more wind at all.”

She’s taking advantage of the nice weather to check everything out and make any needed fixes.

Watch yesterday’s round-up from race organisers

Note: to view these videos in Safari, please ensure Flash player is enabled. Dates and times relate to when the media was published.