The lead is still firmly held by Apivia, 209 miles ahead of Linked Out as they pass well north of the Kerguelen Islands. They have fresh to strong Northerly winds at the moment but a high pressure system lies ahead of them which is making its way east south of Australia. Ideally they want to move along with the winds they have which will keep them ahead of a deepening Low pressure system building up to their south and west. Bureau Vallee has run into light winds further south and averaged only 6 knots over the past 4 hours, but stronger winds are on their way. Third place is now held by Maitre Coq 1V., 340 miles astern of the leader. Jean Le Cam in 5th place has slowed right down for some reason. Pip Hare is in 20th place, just passing the Longitude of Cape Town. Miranda Merron is in 22nd place in the rear group of 8 yachts.
Apicel, lying 7th, is having auto-pilot problems. Both its Autopilots, which electronically control the steering, are giving trouble. It’s a nightmare on these boats. The skipper cannot steer as well as deal with the problem. That happened to me departing Fremantle in the Velux 5 Oceans race, when my pilot started to switch itself off. After the third time, when I was trying to sort out a change of sail in the sail locker and found myself trapped by the weight of the sail for 10 minutes, I turned back. There was now way it was safe to continue like that. The problem turned out to be that the wire to the rams that controlled the rudder were too small to convey enough power when the loads came on. It had happened once or twice on the voyage from Bilbao to Fremantle. Once thicker wire was installed I had not more problems. Think about the size of wires required by your car’s starter motor and you will understand. Damien Seguin has my sympathy.
Here is a little taster of what the Vendee Globe sailors are going through. It was taken last year in the same area of the Roaring Forties aboard one of the Clipper Round the World Race yachts.
After 12 days 2 hours and 5 minutes at sea, Sodebo Ultim 3 crossed the longitude of the Cape of Good Hope today at 4:00 am in its Jules Verne Trophy attempt.
Since leaving Ushant on November 25 at 2:55 am, Thomas Coville and his seven crew have covered 8,154 miles, at an average of 28 knots. When passing the Cape of Good Hope, they had a 17 hour and 35 minute lead over the holder of the Jules Verne Trophy (626.73 nm advance as of 20:45.