Tension and suspense are rising on the 23rd day of racing at the Vendée Globe. The approaching low has split the leading group. After Thomas Ruyant ("Vulnerable") and the other skippers up to ninth place, Yoann Richomme ("Paprec Arkéa") has also positioned himself further to the north-east. They are all trying to avoid the most severe effects of the expected strong depression, the first harbingers of which will soon reach the boats in front.
Two Vendée Globe skippers in the eye of the deep?
Leading Charlie Dalin ("Macif Santé Prévoyance") and Seb Simon ("Groupe Dubreuil") remained alone at the 45th parallel south on the morning of 3 December. Separated by only 18 nautical miles, they initially slowed down early on Tuesday, only making progress at less than ten knots.
Yoann Richomme had already made it north to 42 degrees south and thus almost level with Thomas Ruyant at the 7 o'clock update, while her pursuers Nico Lunven ("Holcim-PRB") and Jérémie Beyou ("Charal") had already sailed to "safety" at 39 degrees latitude. At or north of the 40th parallel, Sam Goodchild ("Vulnerable"), Yannick Bestaven ("Maître Coq V") and Paul Meilhat ("Biotherm") sailed on an evasive course to the low.
It's about escaping the low." Nico Lunven
They all accepted hundreds of miles of losses to avoid being "eaten up" by supposedly dramatic conditions. "Holcim-PRB" skipper Nico Lunven said: "These are the decisions we made! On paper, it's not necessarily a winning route. It's about escaping the low. But I didn't want to get into a situation where I was exposed to that low. By heading north, I can gain a bit more height in the north if I want to, to avoid the rough seas and strong winds."
Vendée Globe: the northern route of reason
The evening before, Boris Herrmann's former Ocean Race navigator Nico "The Brain" Lunven had already said: "The boats ahead of us are making different decisions, but that's because the small gap of a hundred miles we had two or three days ago allowed them to hold the wind longer and therefore go faster."
The fleet fifth, now 584 nautical miles behind Charlie Dalin, continued: "I haven't done any route planning for them, but they may have a slightly different scenario to deal with this low pressure area. But I've had a little look around and you can clearly see that Thomas Ruyant didn't get the first move in the first group so he's a bit caught in the light wind. And he's travelling further north."
Lunven also shares his assessment: "I have the impression that he will fall back to us. Behind that, they made pretty much the same choice as Jérémie and me. In any case, I preferred to make this decision early!" Lunven is just as reluctant to take any risks with what has often been described as a behemoth as the surrounding competition. Sam Goodchild had also previously said that it was "a very difficult decision" to move northwards. It had cost him hundreds of miles.
The low comes from the west
The highly navigational Nico Lunven explained the strong movements in the leading group using his own example: "My decision to climb northwards? A low pressure area is coming from behind, from the west, which will catch up with us and sweep over the entire Kerguelen area. When it reaches my altitude, it will deepen seriously and get really bad. And the centre of this depression is far to the north!"
What could this mean for the boats in front? Nico Lunven, who is in no way prone to exaggeration, explained: "If you are caught directly in front of the centre of the depression or - even worse - to the south of the centre, you will find yourself in a north-easterly wind that turns to windward, and that in strong winds. We're talking 30 to 40 knots."
Further down the line, winds of up to 50 or 60 knots are expected. Which, according to Lunven, will not only result in heavy seas. "The waves are forecast to be eight to nine metres high. These are conditions that I don't want to deal with in detail. So we'll have to shift more to the north to avoid the strongest winds and the rough seas that come with them."
Boris Herrmann catches up
Lunven warned: "This low pressure area deserves care and attention! We will continue to sail a dedicated route where we can manoeuvre more easily and go faster, perhaps even faster than the boats that might go into the middle of the depression - with the risk of being pushed around, suffering breakages and not handling their boat as they should."
Meanwhile, Boris Herrmann, still in twelfth place, had made up 100 nautical miles on the leaders within ten hours by the 7 o'clock update early Tuesday morning. His rivals also remain on the move: Justine Mettraux ("TeamWork - Team Snef") has now overtaken Samantha Davies on "Initiatives Cœur" and moved into the top ten. The Swiss rider and the British rider were virtually neck and neck.
Boris Herrmann was also only around eleven nautical miles behind both of them and had recently been travelling two knots faster than Mettraux and five knots faster than Davies. The chances of his return to the top ten had increased significantly.
