Bulletin: 13th December 2007

A welcome wind shift

The past few hours of racing have been very changeable aboard TEMENOS II, author of some great averages for the first half of the night, the second being much calmer. Evolving beyond the 53rd degree South, in seas of 2°C, the risk of ice from the 52nd degree omnipresent. Benefiting from a N’ly wind rotation early this morning, Michèle and Dominique were able to gybe and are currently making northing. The wind shift was forecast in the grib files and fell at a given point, preventing the boat from continuing this dangerous plunge South.
As Michèle recalled at yesterday's radio session “there’s a point where you have to know when to be reasonable”. Some would ask if it’s reasonable to take part in such a race aboard these ultra-powerful machines. Indeed, it is for this very reason that the risks are limited and virtual lines known as ice gates have been established by the organisers of this course. The latter, which the competitors have to leave to starboard, are aimed at preventing the duos from getting into too much danger by adopting overly ‘austral’ routes.

Contacted at the start of the afternoon, Dominique who had just come back down below after hoisting some sails, recounted the stresses of the past night. “It gusted up to 40 knots in the first half of the night, the boat speeding along at over 20 knots in the pitch black, and you have to put the risk of ice to the very back of your mind."

We can nevertheless guess that such a fear must be very hard for the skippers to forget when sailing along blindly in the black night, aboard a boat which is pelting along. Though aboard everyone has a radar, which is a precious surveillance aid, the visual watch remains an essential part of this lookout process, especially when you know that the radars aren't able to detect half submerged growlers.

“We check the radar every 10 minutes and we set the alarm to ring so as our watches are very regular and we can scan the horizon, 6 and 12 miles ahead of the boat.

The 2nd part of the night was a lot quieter. From midnight, dawn began to break and a little later the wind began to drop off to 20 knots before shifting round to the North. This rotation was forecast and that’s why we persisted with our southing. That has enabled us to gain some ground and perform a fine operation.

We’ve gybed and we're making a bit of northing now as we have a better angle on a port tack at the moment. The seas are still a little messy. There is a very long W’ly swell which is fabulous, with some parasitic waves coming in from the South. The boat is slamming a lot in the surf and it's hard to find a balance in this sea so we end up on our side from time to time.”

This N’ly tack which is distancing the boats from the ice zone presents other dangers as Dominique explained to us. Though the skipper’s short term strategy already seems defined, the scenario at the approach of the Kerguelen islands still harbours a few unknown quantities.

“We’re kind of getting to the end of the very regular air flow which we’ve had until now, and the files are saying that we’re likely to have a few little light patches over the next two days.

By making northing we’re closing on the high pressure zone and we’ll have to gybe again before we fall into the calms, then again a second time to head either to the South or North of the Kerguelen islands. All that remains to be seen and after the Kerguelen islands things aren't very clear as there are different files each day.”