Vendée Globe: update 9Dec20

For the leaders of the Vendée Globe, the very difficult conditions in an Indian Ocean depression are the most challenging of the race so far. In winds of 35-55kts and big seas, the combination of tiredness and continuous stress makes small technical jobs hard, and big jobs seem impossible.

Charlie Dalin has extended his lead out to 250 nautical miles while nearly all of his rivals who are chasing in his wake either had technical problems or slowed to reposition themselves relative to the 800 mile wide system which has over 60kts of wind and eight metre waves near its centre.

“At this stage in the Vendée Globe, after a month of racing, it’s quite incredible to have eleven boats within 600 miles of each other in the Indian Ocean with so many different design generations all represented,” says weather consultants Sébastien Josse and Christian Dumard.

“Between the 2020 generation LinkedOut in second and fifth placed Dutreux’s OMIA Water Family there are 12 years or three Vendée Globe generations, but they are only 200 miles apart. That is really, nothing. It’s less than half a day in some conditions.”

Check out today’s sunrise in the Southern Indian Ocean, from Armel Tripon (L’Occitane en Provence). Staggeringly beautiful. (07.35 9Dec20)

Hear from skippers across the fleet

Pip Hare battles, and defeats, her tack line issue

“At 2am, in the pitch dark with no moon and building breeze, the tack line on my code zero broke. It went with a loud bang.

“The force of the sail blowing upwards had ripped the outrigger from its location on the deck. I couldn’t see the sail but saw the outrigger and assumed that one of the linkages holding that forwards had broken.

“Medallia felt a little wild, heeling over more, slightly less controlled. I saw the sail, flying up in the air, the tack line was broken so the sail was attached only at the top and back corners of the triangle, the only thing stopping the whole sail from wildly flailing around was the furling line hooked under the pulpit, the force of which was bending the metal framework upwards.

“My mind raced; at once I went through several scenarios for how this could go. Somehow I needed to get the sail under control. The first option appeared to be to get it down but the risk in this was huge.

“It is often the way with racing a boat this size on your own that the first solution is not the obvious one and I have often said this is why I believe we are able to race men and women on equal terms in this incredible sport.

“Rushing in to wrestle that sail out of the sky was the wrong answer and had I been perhaps bigger, or more physically strong I may have been more inclined to try. But stepping back for a second gave me the right solution.

“I have now put a system in place where there are always two tack lines on my furling sails. Those lines are put under one hell of a load and those sails will be my work horses for at least the next six weeks while I am racing through the southern ocean.

“With a second ‘safety’ tackline in place I will be able to sleep in the knowledge the sail will be contained until I am next on deck. In this way Medallia and I are evolving, we are adapting, we are learning.

“It is not always easy to step back from a crisis situation and think. It requires a calm state, a confidence to withdraw momentarily and the ability to put aside the feelings of fear or stress and focus clearly on finding a solution. On reflection I think this is something I have learned to do through my sailing career. I know well that icy grip of fear and how it has the ability to paralyse you and to turn your brain in circles. But when you are alone on a boat in the middle of the ocean there is simply no one else to take charge. The fear cannot take control. It keeps you sharp but you must learn to suppress it.”

Watch as Hare repairs her broken rope (15.35 8Dec20)

Miranda Merron is sleeping on the job

“0/10 for application at school this morning. I fell asleep having prepared a good tea after which I had to jibe. I woke up with a cup of cold tea (what a waste), And obviously the staff had not gybed the boat while I was taking an illegal and delicious nap, since there was nothing to disrupt the radar, no alarm to remind me that I was racing.” (07.52 9Dec20)

Merron’s team says she is on the last stretch before the Cape of Good Hope, and is looking to ‘slip under the African continent’ on Friday morning.

Watch yesterday’s round-up from race organisers

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