Vendee Globe Update–Next Up, Cape Verde: The lead boats are south of the Canary islands and getting into lighter trade winds. They’re headed for the Cape Verde islands, which are the next waypoint on the sprint to the Equator. Big move in the fleet overnight came from Jean Le Cam (“King Jean” as he is known on the solo sailing circuit) on Bonduelle. Le Cam has rocketed his way into second place; see the latest standings here. There is now a distinct leading group of six boats, with about 70 miles separating first and sixth. Then there is a gap of 90 miles to seventh, which is a gap that will be hard to jump anytime soon. In his latest radio conversation Nick Moloney on Skandia provided some interesting insights into the stresses of solo racing, and the difficulty of sleeping in an Open 60 race boat rocketing through the seas, always on the edge of disaster:

“Bit of sleep during the night, it was tough though, with my inexperience its very stressful to rest…stressful when pushing, sails flapping, lot of water everywhere, sheets banging again the hull as chute collapse and refills. Every time you engage you pilot, go below and try to shut your eyes, boat goes deep [ie wind goes right behind the boat, with risk of an involuntary gybe, and resultant chaos/damage] down a wave, heart in throat, run on deck to try and stop the gybe…NOT CONDUCIVE TO SLEEP AS YOU CAN SEE!

I’m used to handing the helm over to someone else, not to an electronic box. I reckon I’ve slept only 9 hours since the start!”

The Vendee Globe website also has in interesting article about dealing with the noise of racing. Just one of the elements that makes the Vendee one of the world’s most extreme competitions…



“Goddamn, this tub is noisy. I might as well be in a subway car…”