Vendée Globe: update 10Nov20

Like you, we’re keen to keep an eye on the Vendée Globe, especially checking in with our British skippers. We’re aiming to bring you snippets of the action, and a brief update on how Pip Hare, Miranda Merron, Sam Davies and Alex Thomson are faring, alongside our regular coverage.

Alex Thomson says he hasn’t had much rest so far

Thomson’s first night was interrupted with removing fishing tackle from his rudder and foil. He says he lost six or seven miles when the sheet came off the sail and had a ‘minor panic’ with the generator, but discovered after taking it apart, that it was ‘all good’.

“These aren’t the best conditions for this boat. It means I have to work harder,” Thomson says.

Miranda Merron is enjoying not having to wear a mask

“The amusements of the night resulted in little sleep, between the zig zags among the freighters en route to the North on the ‘highway’ which connects Cape Finisterre and Ushant, followed by slaloms between the numerous Spanish fishing boats and their long nets. I must now cross both lanes of this highway. The wind is very light and unstable, but that did not prevent a huge squall, under a cloud I imagine, from putting the boat down, the pilot having stalled, with an untimely tack on the wrong side of the deck. We never get bored,” Merron said early this morning (10Nov20).

Listen to Merron checking in with Vendée Globe organisers on 9Nov20.

Pip Hare released a brief video, taken shortly after the start

“It was awesome, I had a great start,” she says.

“The fleet’s all levelling out now, I’m back to where I should be.”

Thanks to Hare for the main image above.

Sam Davies found it difficult to get proper rest on the first night

“Everything went well, it was emotional first day,” she says.

“I changed sails in middle of the night, it was pretty active.”

Listen to Davies checking in with Vendée Globe organisers on 9Nov20.

And, for those of you whose French is up to the task, here is Davies describing her first day.