The situation is exasperating - and yet he doesn't do it: for days, the leading Armel Le Cléac'h "Hugo Boss" has been losing miles seemingly at will. This morning it was already 382 in total, but Alex Thomson remains positive. "There's nothing I can do about the situation, I'm sailing the boat as fast as I can, so there's just no point in getting angry." With the smile with which he says this to the camera, it really does come across as convincing. Even though he admits that the Southern Ocean is a world of eternal grey: "Not a fifty shades of grey, more a hundred!"
The sailing world is witnessing an astonishingly changed Alex Thomson. Perhaps this is due to the psychologist the Brit works with, who counselled him especially after the trauma of his capsized and half-drowned "Hugo Boss" in 2015. "He had a few nightmares" afterwards, he told YACHT this summer. The coaching made things better, he said, and he talked a lot with his personal coach, including about the dark hours of a single-handed race around the world. His tired, tense face during the videos from the storm south of New Zealand showed what these can be like. Perhaps Thomson has simply matured with the experience of four Vendée Globe campaigns, two Barcelona World Races and countless transats. He has overcome so many setbacks over the years that he seems a bit of a stand-up guy. Now married and the father of two children, he radiates a calmness and composure on this Vendée that has made him a universally recognised French hunter. As the New Zealand sailing pro Mike Sanderson, winner of the Volvo Ocean Race, said so beautifully in an interview with Thomson via telephone a few days ago: "We Kiwis have adopted you. Your great performance and the positive way in which you report from on board have made the Vendée a huge talking point here." There's nothing to add to that.
Thomson reports from on board about his dreams: "It's funny: I've been dreaming for a few days that I'm not alone on the boat! It's a bit strange when one of the programmed alarms goes off, for example because the wind has picked up, and I wake up and think: Oh, stay put, XY will sort it out!" Mr X is usually his brother or sailing buddy Josh. "It's only after a while that I think: Oh no, you have to go out yourself!" That's how it is with loneliness after 40 days on the Vendée Globe.
But what Thomson also said in the video today is that the situation is confusing for him: "The weather models are constantly changing. Sometimes they predict that Armel on his southerly course will reach Cape Horn two and a half days before me, sometimes twelve hours. It's all in flux!" In the meantime, however, he is already starting to look backwards, which has not been necessary practically since the middle of the Indian Ocean. "The weather programme has also said at times that they (the chasers) are closing to within a day," says the Briton.
In fact, the pursuers Paul Meilhat with his "SMA" and Jérémie Beyou with "Maitre Coq" are making up a lot of ground as they race towards the slowly dissipating storm depression that caused so much trouble for the field before Australia. They are only 850 nautical miles, just under two days, behind. And both are likely to find good conditions over the next few days as a new low is approaching. So perhaps Alex Thomson will soon find himself in the unexpected position of having to defend his second place instead of fighting for the lead. Armel Le Cléac'h is currently sailing much further south in better wind and with his foil, while Thomson is travelling without one. Thomson reckons that they will round Cape Horn at Christmas or on the first bank holiday.
Things are also exciting in the group of three around Yann Eliès, Jean Le Cam and Jean-Pierre Dick, in fifth to seventh place. The day before yesterday, it looked as if Dick and his "St. Michel-Virbac" would lose a lot of miles to Yann Eliès, who had previously been in fifth place, due to the diversions through the Bass Strait. Dick is sailing one of the top modern foilers, while Eliès is travelling on one of the best non-foilers with Marc Guillemot's old "Safran". Jean Le Cam, who had been laughing third so far, had come back to within 30 miles due to the storm that forced Eliès to turn round, but now the newer, faster boats are taking miles off him again. The 57-year-old sails a ten-year-old boat, the "Foncia", with which Michel Desjoyeaux achieved his first Vendée Globe victory. It remains to be seen whether Jean-Pierre Dick will finally manage to work his way up to the long-awaited 5th place. So far, the Frenchman has not really been able to convince with the speed of his foiler.
In the peloton behind, the once large groups have also been torn apart somewhat. Thomas Ruyant has lost touch with Jean Le Cam, who is now almost 600 miles ahead of him, due to his defect with the ballast tanks about a week ago. Almost 700 miles behind is Louis Burton with "Bureau Valle", who is having a really flawless race on his second Vendée. The 31-year-old has his boat, Jérémie Beyou's old "Delta Dore", which he has been sailing for over six years, under excellent control and has not yet been caught out by any of the major problems that have befallen so many skippers behind him. Behind him, the rather large group of "finishers", who have approached the race as an adventure and for whom arriving at the finish line is the big dream, almost begins.
Andreas Fritsch
Editor Travel
