Sam Davies hits UFO, heads north (Vendée Globe update: 3Dec20)

In a briefly worded facebook post the team at Initiatives Coeur has announced that Sam Davies hit an unidentified floating object, early yesterday evening.

Thankfully Davies isn’t hurt. She is heading north at low speed to inspect her boat and assess the damage with her team.

(Image left from 28Nov, and above from Sep20)

Listen as Davies updates race organisers this morning.

“It was as if I ran aground on a rock. The boat nose dived. I could hear the crack coming from the keel. The collision was really violent. It could have been worse. I’ve hurt my ribs. It’s not serious but it’s really painful.

“I can’t sail at any speed so I am heading slowly towards Cape Town to assess what to do.” (09.30 3Dec20)

Nine boats (and ten skippers) cross the longitude of the Cape of Good Hope yesterday.

Although Charlie Dalin’s high speed foiling IMOCAs is designed for top speeds of more than 30kts, now racing in the steep, short seas of the Indian Ocean, race leader Dalin has been through his biggest storm to date and today said he is having to learn how to slow his boat and manage it.

“I am discovering something I have never had to do before,” says Dalin, “I have to un-trim, detune my boat. I feel now 50% of the time I am trying to trim the sails and the foils and keel to go faster, and 50% of the time I am de-tuning the boat.

“I find myself looking for the brake pedal. The sea state in the Indian Ocean is really what is limiting my speed. Sometimes the boat accelerates in the surf and we go to 28-30kts and you don’t know how it is going to end. It is a really weird to way to think, ‘I have this wind strength, this wind angle is this and I have these sails up, and I have the foil set like this, but if I change all these settings I should slow the boat down, and slow the boat down.’ I never had to do this before in my racing career.”

Hear from skippers around the fleet

Pip Hare is savouring her last piece of fresh fruit

Hare says she’s enjoying her first ever 400 plus mile 24-hour run, and savouring the last piece of fresh food she’ll eat until February. She’s been checking every single tiny thing, and says the boat is fine. She’s been very anxious, but it’s all fine. (18.37 2Dec20)

Listen to Hare’s check-in yesterday (09.30 2Dec20)

Miranda Merron is experiencing falling temperatures

Merron had a good night’s sleep which allowed her to come back 20 and 30 miles from her fellow travellers, Clément Giraud and Alexia Barrier, with whom she has been sailing together from Ecuador. (07.50 3Dec20)

Watch yesterday’s round-up of events

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