Sam Davies sailing Roxy at speed. Image copyright Vincent Curutchet/DPPI/Vendée Globe.
by Véronique Teurlay
She said again today that she has not been even looking at the course, the speeds, and the weather that her pursuer Marc Guillemot has been making, so intense has her focus been on reaching Les Sables d’Olonne as quick as possible, but Sam Davies will have 50 hours to fill as best she can, waiting to see if Marc Guillemot can save his time on her and wrest third place on the Vendée Globe podium from the British skipper.
One thing is for sure, at least until the arrival of her compatriots Brian Thompson and Dee Caffari on Monday, the Vendée Globe start and finish destination of Les Sables d’Olonne will be Sam’s Town.
Roxy. Image copyright Francois Van Malleghem/DPPI/Vendée Globe.
Davies had just 116 miles to sail Friday afternoon and was making a profitable 10 knots boat speed, which should bring her and her pink, polka dotted Roxy across the finish line around 0200hrs GMT (0300hrs local time), to complete her remarkable race. Overnight and this morning she was parked, hardly moving some 130 miles off the bay of Port La Foret where the British skipper did so much of her training, first in the Figaro in which she raced and trained for four years, and then latterly with the Open 60 which has already won the Vendée Globe twice in succession. If she can hold on to third place it will be a remarkable record for British skippers with Ellen MacArthur taking second in 2000-01 and Mike Golding third in 2004-5. She is assured of being only the fourth woman to finish the course, and the second quickest to MacArthur. She is leading her two British compatriots home, seeming set to land three of the top six places in this most grueling and demanding edition which has seen 19 of the 30 starters retire.
Her rival Guillemot sounded more upbeat and cheerful today, having had some rest last night and pulled back over 80 miles on the young British skipper. He was still saying that third place on the Vendée Globe podium is not his priority but his chances seem to have improved over the last 24 hours, and so far he has not had the slow down or indeed the park up that Davies had at the same time yesterday. He was making 6.9 knots this afternoon on Safran but will be sailing mainly on the wind with no keel and he had not yet tried port tack on his smaller daggerboard.
If Samantha Davies no longer needs to worry, she can happily look in her mirror and see her two fellow Brits, finishing neck and neck. Brian Thompson (Bahrain Team Pindar) and Dee Caffari (Aviva) were still speeding towards the Bay of Biscay, which is exceptionally quiet for the season. They too will have to tack upwind to the finish, but can look forward to crossing the line on Monday... Early in the morning for the « giant »and ten hours or so later for Dee. The arrival of three boats in the same day is a first for the Vendée Globe. As is seeing three Brits in the first six... Especially as behind there is another one: Steve White (Toe in the water), who is unlikely to overtake Arnaud Boissières (Akéna Vérandas), but this is the closest he has been for many weeks. The French sailor is finding it difficult to get away from the ridge of high pressure and his stop-and-go movement is not allowing him to pick up the SW’ly airstream, which can be found a few hundred miles ahead. While the Weymouth based sailor is still in the trade winds on his way around the high pressure system via the west...
Nauticsport-Kapsch experienced up to 80 knots in the south Atlantic. Image copyright Norbert Sedlacek/Nauticsport-Kapsch/Vendée Globe.
The South Atlantic is still just as violent. After the storm which surprised Norbert Sedlacek (Nauticsport-Kapsch), the wind backed southerly. It will become variable during the night as another thunder low arrives. No rest for the Austrian who will be facing headwinds in excess of forty knots. Fortunately as for Raphaël Dinelli (Fondation Océan Vital) the trade winds will be there in a couple of days off Rio de Janeiro. A strong easterly airstream, but at least it will be steady.
Rich Wilson (Great American III), is managing to get away from the coast of Brazil off Recife. But close to the shore, the winds are not cooperating: he had to change tack to get further away, but once around the point (sometime tonight), things should start to look a little more pleasant, but that will only last for a couple of days as the Doldrums lie ahead...
Sam Davies, GBR, (Roxy): “The wind got up to a maximum of 3-4 knots during the night. It was fairly hard to make any headway. There was so little wind that I had to work on the sails all the time. I had to take the helm to be able to move in the right direction. I’m now up to 10.7 knots, which is a speed record. I think things should start to improve in the next hour or so. I should cross the finish at around 2 in the morning, which isn’t a very sociable time. I’m a bit sad as this is my final radio session as I enjoy them each day. My boat is great. She had a great list of successes before this race, so I’m hoping to add to that. I hadn’t had much experience on a 60-foot boat when I got this boat. My priority was to improve the skipper rather than the boat. The boat has allowed me to sail a lot and train a lot too. She is so solid that I’m able to hoist the sails without fear of breaking anything. I’ve learnt a lot during this round the world race. I really think I’m sailing ten times better now than at the start. I haven’t finished learning yet as there’s something to learn every day. So I’m going to learn how to progress until 2012.”
Marc Guillemot, (Safran): “Early in the night, the wind came around more to a headwind so I changed to staysail and got the mainsail back up to second reef. In the middle of the night, the wind got up to 15 knots so I changed to a bigger jib, but then it eased off again this morning. The big change aboard Safran is that I was finally able to get some decent sleep and even had a dream, which hasn’t happened since I lost the keel. So now I’m upwind, but there is a lot less stress and the rest has done me a lot of good. It wasn’t something I’d calculated or worked on but when I looked at my computer, I could see Sam was having a difficult time in the ridge of high pressure. After all, this is a race and Samantha is very confident, so I’m not going to feel sorry for her, if I manage to claw back a few miles. It offers me a tiny hope in the rankings, even if they are no longer the priority, but at least that gives me something to fight for and motivates me. When I’m feeling good, the boat does too. I’m remaining very cautious, as I said yesterday. I’ve seen that it is possible to sail upwind with reduced sail on the starboard tack with the big daggerboard in place, and things are going better than I expected. The unknown factor will be Saturday morning for the final 180 miles to Les Sables, when I move to the port tack using the smaller daggerboard as I don’t know how the boat will sail. So for the moment, I’m still planning to finish on Monday afternoon, but there a lot of unknown factors to consider.”
“ To be honest, I don’t think I have lost any weight, except around the legs due to the lack of exercise. Since the start, I’ve been eating correctly and have always been careful about that. I’ve had three good meals a day with a big breakfast. I had a lot of stuff with me like ham and mountain bison from the Alps. I’ve got some chocolate and cereals left. I shan’t be inviting you to dinner, as I only have freeze-dried meals left now. I know there are people who eat only freeze-dried food during the race, but I only had it on board as a reserve. I find it difficult to eat. I’ll have to give it a try and if I can’t stomach it, I’ll put a line over to get some fresh tuna.”
Dee Caffari's disintegrating mainsail on board Aviva. Image copyright Dee Caffari/Aviva/Vendée Globe.
Dee Caffari, GBR (AVIVA): “I am pointing in the right direction, I am hanging on to this breeze for as ling as I can, I know it is going to light ahead of me so I am just trying to make the most of it. Earlier this morning I did manage to hoist a reef out and so the horrible damaged area is further away from me, and so as long as I don’t look up it is not too bad. It is good to be able to do that because it was beginning to stress me, my mainsail was. I did not think it was going to last.”
“I think it has been more about changing gears as the wind changes, I cant hoist as early as I would like to, and I have to hoist completely depowered and so I do feel sometimes I am missing the gear changes that I would have, which is a little frustrating, because every time I close the gap to Pindar he is getting away again, so I think that maybe it is those gear changes that I am missing.”
“I ran the boat at 80% of Polars (theoretical target speeds derived from accumulated performance data) when I was first back in the Atlantic and I was over-running the Polars all the time, so went back to 90% and I would probably say that I am near there or maybe 85% at the moment, because of the gear changes that are needed, but I am amazed that I am still producing the gear changes that are needed given the state of my mainsail.”
Arnaud Boissières, (Akena Verandas): “The days are starting to resemble each other and I had my usual six hours of light airs at three in the morning. The sun is out and there’s a little breeze, so I’m currently sailing at 7.5 knots again now. From until nine this morning, I was parked up. I moved a bit to the west to be able to get going to the north again. There are light winds with occasional darker clouds, where the wind freshens a bit and there’s still a heavy swell. It could be a lot worse, and I hope to get more wind this afternoon. I’ve still got a week to ten days out here to take advantage of this before returning to all the annoyances of life ashore, like getting stopped for using my phone when driving, or getting the same bill several times. I’ve been taking advantage of the sun to recharge the batteries on my i-Pod and I have two, so that lasts. I really like listening to music as the sun goes down. When the wind drops off, that soothes my nerves. I like up-tempo stuff by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Doors or the Streets. A friend loaded up my iPod for me with some rock.
"After the Vendée Globe, I shall be repairing everything I broke and then sailing in the 60-foot events later in 2009 like the Jacques Vabre and then I would like to look forward to a four-year campaign and a new project for the next Vendée Globe, as I’ve learnt a lot of things. But that will require discussions. We’ll see about that when I get back."
Brian Thompson, GBR, (Bahrain Team Pindar): “ I am sailing in beautiful flat water, little bit of sunshine and getting closer to France all the time which is good. The breeze is starting to head. Fortunately it looks like the high is moving away the NE.
"It has been just incredible for me, unrelenting. There has not been a day since Australia that I have not been fixing something, and I have had very little time for actual sailing it is mostly down below laminating, fixing engines, alternators, working on the keel hydraulics. At the end I am really amazed at where I am in the fleet, and very happy. And today and a bit of yesterday I have been able to relax and enjoy the sailing, and even today I have some Christmas presents to open which I have not had time to open. I have to do that before I reach Les Sables d’Olonne, and enjoy the sailing in. So many things are not working now, but there are far fewer things to fix, so that makes it easier. It has been quite a lesson and quite a journey. I know the boat very, very well now.
"Half way through the race I thought there was a completely outside possibility of getting into the top 5, but touch wood, it can happen. And at the start to have thought top five I would have been very, very happy. It is a different way to how you would have expected, more for reasons of attrition to every one else, but top five is top five and if I get to the finish I will be very, very proud of getting the boat round the course and keeping it going the whole way.”
Roxy's spinnaker. Image copyright Francois Van Malleghem/DPPI/Vendée Globe.
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