The cards are dealt, the outcome of the encounters with the heavy low is still open. While the top seven pursuers of Charlie Dalin and Sébastien Simon had preferred to shift their course northwards in the Indian Ocean early on, in some cases at a loss, the two front men are facing tough tests. The skippers of "Macif Santé Prévoyance" and "Groupe Dubreuil" had made a conscious decision to continue on a direct course to the east, but in view of their positions they had no reasonable alternatives.
Vendée Globe storm hits with full force
They knew that they could soon have to deal with winds of over 50 knots and massive wave crests on this route. According to the latest forecasts, Charlie Dalin and Seb Simon, who were already sailing in strong winds from the front of the depression on Wednesday afternoon, could face the most brutal peak of the conditions from Friday to Saturday. In between, they could experience a short breather in the windless centre of the depression.
The most pressing questions as the 25th race day begins: Will they manage to escape this highly unromantic rendez-vous without a scratch? And: Will they manage not to be swallowed up by the centre of the low?
The question is not unjustified, as the approaching low pressure is a "hollow" system that will break over the front of the fleet and put enormous demands on the leaders. Although the Vendée Globe weather expert has revised the frightening expectations slightly downwards, 50 knots of wind and waves expected to be seven metres high still mean survival conditions rather than regatta conditions.
"The Indian Ocean is now getting the first devil out of the box," announced the Vendée Globe organisers themselves. Those most affected will be Charlie Dalin and Sébastien Simon, who recently sailed 50 nautical miles behind him. According to the official statements, the two will be "hit with full force". According to Dumard, the interesting question is "whether they will manage to sail fast in very strong winds or whether they will be caught up in the doldrums coming from behind."
Bad encounter or a coup?
The answer to this question will probably not be known until Saturday, but one thing is already certain: If the two top skippers manage to get through without breaking and not get sucked in, they could pull off a major coup. The reason for this? Because they are on a tighter course than their more northerly opponents, whose strategy is mainly based on caution, they could come out with a bonus of almost 250 miles.
This in turn caused concern for "Paprec Arkéa" skipper Yoann Richomme, who had drawn attention to himself for a while on Tuesday with an unnatural course to the north. He had put up with the extra miles to avoid the hard core of this first major Southern Ocean raid.
I can't decide what to think of the south option." Yoann Richomme
Yoann Richomme said: "Everything is spinning a bit in my head. The little bike is running. I have a feeling that Charlie and Seb won't do too badly in the end. The scenario is turning out rather well for them. The low is filling up, it's getting a lot smaller and they could get a nice result."
Richomme leads the North Group
Regardless of how the exciting southern leg of the two front men Dalin and Simon turns out, Yoann Richomme led the northern group on the afternoon of 4 December. He himself and the "Vulnerable" skipper Thomas Ruyant, who was around 40 nautical miles behind him, sailed eastwards at a speed of 24 to 27 knots at the 39th parallel south on Wednesday afternoon. They should soon have the most severe effects of the depression behind them. Around 450 nautical miles south-south-east of the Richomme/Ruyant duo, Dalin and Simon were travelling at 16 to just under 20 knots.
Meanwhile, the chasing group in tenth to thirteenth place also had to fight hard. Only differently. Justine Mettraux ("TeamWork - Team Snef"), Samantha Davies ("Initiatives-Cœur"), "Malizia - Seaexplorer" skipper Boris Herrmann and Clarisse Crémer ("L'Occitane en Provence") were separated by just under 200 nautical miles. They worked their way through the effects of the Agulhas current in lighter winds but very unpleasantly rough seas.
While the Indian Ocean is challenging the fleet on its humpback course, its challengers are having to deal more and more with signs of wear and tear, breakage and torn sails. Boris Herrmann also lost sleep on Tuesday night and had to demonstrate MacGyver qualities to get the damaged hydraulics of his port foil box back under control.
Boris Herrmann's MacGyver qualities required
Boris Herrmann's Technical Director Pierre-François "Pifou" Dargnies reported what had happened on board the "Malizia - Seaexplorer". And how Boris Herrmann initially got back on top of the situation with an intensive night shift: "The bolt of the hydraulic cylinder broke last night at around 10.45 pm German time. Boris had to stop the boat and find out what happened first."
Dargnies continued: "Boris has seen that the connection between the bolt and the upper bearing of the foil box on the port side is broken. Unfortunately, we don't have any spare parts for it. It's not easy to repair. We have a replacement system to fix the bearing at a fixed tilt angle. That's what Boris did last night." But his repair marathon didn't end there.
Boris Herrmann was able to continue sailing for four to five hours, but then the problem caught up with him again. Pierre-François Dargnies explained: "Unfortunately, the system came loose after four or five hours. Some parts fell into the foil box. Boris had to catch each part individually from around 3am and reassemble the system. Now the system is back in place. That's perfect."
Proud and tired at the Vendée Globe
But the problem is still not completely solved. "I had a meeting with VPLP this morning. The first message was that it can function and work over a longer period of time. But they need to do a quick calculation to check the safety factor and make sure we are really safe while using this system."
Boris Herrmann was initially proud after the marathon repair, but also very, very tired. He shared this condition with many of the Vendée Globe participants that day, who were paying tribute to the tougher conditions and their own challenges on their boats. Examples of this can be found regularly in the YACHT online live ticker here.
The weekly summary of Team Malizia after the fourth week of racing was published today:
First clip after Boris Herrmann's overnight "MacGyver" mission. More details to follow:
