Vendee Globe Update–Doldrums Lineup: King Jean Le Cam is still leading the fleet, and the top boats are all diving toward a Doldrums gate at about 26 degrees West longitude. Daily report here. Position report here. Feature of the day comes from Alex Thomson’s Hugo Boss team. It’s called “A Day In The Life Of A Vendee Racer,” and it’s for everyone who thinks the racers are having a nice cruise through the trade winds:

“Just before darkness set in last night, Alex was enjoying 20 – 25 knots of wind with spinnaker and full main flying. All of a sudden everything on board, including Alex was propelled from one side to the other as the pilots gybed the boat, leaving it completely on its side. Alex was left grabbing onto a winch as he realised the main sail was pinned down by the vang, and he considered how to right his boat. Fortunately he was quickly able to gybe the boat again and get it back upright. “It’s very extreme”, he commented calmly.”Everything crashes over to the opposite side and it takes a second or two to realise what’s happening”. Having righted the boat, Alex switched the pilots back on and did a quick inspection to ensure no obvious damage. But just moments later, the boat gybed again, this time leaving the kite wrapped around the mast. By this stage he was really having to hang on and began to worry about the miles he would be losing but somehow he managed to untangle the kite and right the boat once again. Determined to keep panic at bay, but with legs trembling all the same, Alex spoke with the shore crew and got the back-up pilots up and running.

With his confidence a little shot and the boat in chaos, Thomson decided that a cuppa and some food would be in order before tackling the tasks that faced him.He went below, boiled the kettle and then just as he was pouring the hot water into his delicious freeze-dried culinary delight of the day, the first squall hit, with gusts of 30 knots and upwards. The sudden jolt of the boat caused the boiling water to spill, scalding Alex’s left hand. “It was really painful but I realised that was a lot going on outside and so my first priority had to be to sort the boat out.” Alex came on deck to find HUGO BOSS not just in the middle of a huge squall with increasing winds, but also in the middle of an electrical storm which sent his wind instruments crazy. With his left hand pretty much useless, he rushed to the foredeck and pulled the spinnaker down. By this time, it was about 4am, and exhausted from the previous 9 hours adventure, Alex finally made it down below to get some well earned rest.

At 6.30am, having slept through his alarm, he awoke to find himself in 30 knots of wind but within a few minutes of being on deck, the wind speeds had leapt to 45 knots! Though the sleep had left him feeling a lot calmer, Alex decided to stay on deck and monitor the back-up pilots, his confidence in his equipment not yet fully restored. When asked about the condition of his hand, he said, “I have no doubt that the doctor at home would say with a burn of this nature, ‘keep it clean, don’t use the hand but most importantly don’t get it wet’.”

Amazingly, through all this Thomson actually managed to hold his third place, and even gain miles on the leaders. That hand could get very, very ugly though…



“Hmm. Don’t think my burns will dry out anytime soon…”

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