Greetings from the South Atlantic and have a wonderful 1st Advent! It's such a silvery weather mood out here again. I have a small thirst candle in a jar with a lid. I can light it. And I have an Advent calendar from my wife Birte for the Vendée Globe, which I'll get out straight away.
"It's not an easy week behind me"
For me, the 1st of Advent has a special meaning because it marks the beginning of December. December is the actual Vendée Globe. I hope to round Cape Horn on 30 December or 1 January. I now have four weeks in the Southern Ocean, in Antarctic climes, in the Southern Ocean. That lies ahead of me now. I still have one day and a few hours to go before I reach the Cape of Good Hope. Then we'll be in the Indian Ocean, then the Pacific. I hope to cross two oceans this month.
It hasn't been an easy week for me. Could or should I have done anything differently? I don't see any massive mistakes. I just had this gap at the equator, which was too much to keep up with the boats in front. You can see it proportionally: the further back, the more miles you lose - proportionally to the lead. Even 50 miles difference made a big difference. You can see it in Sam Davies.
The darkest day
In this respect, it was foreseeable for a good week what would happen here. That doesn't shock me. That was the case now. I've come to terms with it. The losses occurred in the North Atlantic during this lull. I didn't keep up well. I made up a little bit at the equator, but it wasn't enough.
Did I shout at the heavens or cry in between? I did both in the last VG. I didn't shout at the sky, I just shouted at the sky. I cried a few times during the last Vendée Globe. You can see that in the documentary "Sturmfahrt" by Ufa.
I'm actually doing quite well so far. The day I said in the video last week that I'd like to cry was the darkest day. Because that's when my backlog materialised with the jibe to the south through the front. And the others kept going. It wasn't an easy day, plus sailing around in the total doldrums.
I'm not euphoric out here. I certainly would be if I was in the front pack." Boris Herrmann
Of course, the mood also depends on the placement. I am very meditative. Spiritually, I try to tune in, to tune in. My challenge is to learn to be present every day despite all the circumstances. Not to see it as negative. To see what is special and realise what is happening here: I am on a special adventure in life. You don't do that every day.
The separated Vendée Globe fleet
I try not to let myself be dragged down by a position that I can do little about at the moment. And I don't feel guilty about it either: I did my best and was a bit unlucky. And that's how it turned out. Think of the Transat New York Vendée, where all the good people apart from Charlie got stuck behind this front and then I had a lead of thousands of miles.
I try to be strong and positive." Boris Herrmann
There can be such separating weather situations. This one was drastic. Even more so than the last Vendée Globe. We lost this low well over 1000 miles off Cape Town and Thomas then also had his foil problem. It remains to be seen what will happen. I'm trying to work on my mood, to be strong and positive. I think I'm managing that quite well. There's a bit of melancholy and a bit of sadness sometimes. It depends on what I'm thinking about at the time.
Cape Horn on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day?
The important thing is simply to learn to sail my own race, my Vendée Globe. What's next? The routings to the Cape of Good Hope say: about a day and a few hours. Will the Cape of Good Hope be my programme? Of course! It's not called the Cape of Hope, but the Cape of Good Hope! I actually have good hopes of rounding Cape Horn on 30 December or 1 January. That's my big personal challenge. I'll be very proud and happy to complete it. I still have a long way to go before then.
The next few days will be brisk. A GFS routing yesterday had me one and a half days behind the leaders at Cape Leeuwin. So 700 miles, to be precise. Which would be an advantage compared to now. Now the gap is bigger. The current weather here is greyish. In the doldrums I had beautiful mercury colours, which looked really great. The water temperature is currently 17 degrees and the air temperature at night is 16 degrees. It's relatively warm in the boat, sometimes a T-shirt is enough because there's such a greenhouse effect in the cabin.
I don't think I could cope so well with reading negative comments. Especially not in the doldrums." Boris Herrmann
Overall, there are still remarkably few technical problems in the fleet because we have also had little wind so far. We haven't had the tough Bay of Biscay or the tough Atlantic that we usually have. But Malizia is very well prepared. There are no technical problems to report from here. The encouragement from the fans is great in my current situation! I don't hear any negative criticism. I see the fan comments that are sent to me.
Bold manoeuvres and a beautiful left turn
I'm in a pretty good mood. I'm sailing downwind of the next low. To the north, I'm chasing the departing area of high pressure, so the sea is quite flat. So I'm pushing with the big gennaker in a slightly higher range than usual. We just had 24 knots for a short time. But it went down to 17 knots an hour ago. I'll keep an eye on that now.
The next action will be to switch from the large gennaker to the J0, which is the biggest manoeuvre of all. Furling the big gennaker is a long grind. Packing it into the stupid bag too. The wind is a bit shiftier. I had a nice left-hand shift, 280, that was great. Then I did a nice VMG to the south-east.
Now it goes a little to the right again, to 300, 303, where it no longer looks quite so nice on the tracker. But I'm going to move a few hours south here. Maybe four hours or so. Where the two girls (editor's note: this refers to Justine Mettraux and Clarisse Crémer) are also jetting along.
Real and AIS encounters at sea
That's a bit more favourable because the wind is a bit more to the right, I think. Then we'll sail a slightly more favourable angle to the northeast on port bow, where we'll jibe at the end of the day or during the night and then continue southeast on starboard bow for quite a while. Probably with J0 as far as the Cape of Good Hope.
The AIS alarm just went off. Justine passes just ahead of me. She's on the port bow. Let's see if she jibes to the south again. I don't think so. We have great wind here. But I'm going to sail on a little further. I'd like to stay close to her to have a match point, a match reference.
It was really cool to have Justine around for the last two days. Partly also on the AIS. In the doldrums I could see her with my eyes, but not with the AIS. Her AIS is quite weak, only covering three or four miles. I can see Clarisse for 15 miles. There are big differences.
1st Advent in the South Atlantic - the latest Sunday clip from Boris Herrmann:
Outfitter Musto has just released this promotional clip. Many of the current top sailors in the fleet have their say on the subject of clothing for the ultimate solo challenge. You can see and hear Boris Herrmann, Justine Mettraux, Charlie Dalin, Sam Davies, Clarisse Crémer, Jérémie Beyou, Louis Burton, Damien Seguin, Benjamin Dutreux, Tanguy Le Turquais, Violette Dorange and strong sailing scenes:
