Vendee Globe Update–Here Comes A Good ‘Ol Southern Ocean Pasting: Well, it didn’t take the big winds, and rough seas of The South to start pruning the Vendee fleet. Our man, Alex Thomson on Hugo Boss, was forced out when his boom broke loose and speared a hole in his coachroof. And Herve Laurent on UUDS, and Norbert Sedlacek (great name; I bet he got beat up a lot in grade school) on Brother, are also out with damage. And the Southern Ocean is only getting warmed up. This weekend it is going to absolutely cream the two front-runners, PRB and Bonduelle, with 50 knot winds and mountainous 35-foot waves. The rest of the fleet will feel it, but not as bad. Latest daily report here. Latest positions here.Want a sense of how cool these guys are? Here’s leader Vincent Riou’s take on the forecast: “I think we’re going to have 40 to 50 knots but I’m not worried about it, we’ll just have to try not to go too crazy with the boat speed. It’s going to freshen up a bit and it looks like it will be pretty sporty. You really can’t helm at the moment, so shockingly perhaps, I’m only helming for about 1% of the time and we’re in survival mode down below.” “Pretty sporty.” I think I’ll start using that instead of “Force 10.” Alrigthy, then. No great surfing videos yet. But go to the video page and check out Dominique Wavre’s 12/09 clip to get a feel for the howl of the wind and the speed of the boats. Hope they all survive the weekend…



The Hole On Hugo Boss: Not exactly Southern Ocean watertight…