PRB under tow to Port Williams, the plot thickens at the front of Vendee

Image by ROLAND JOURDAIN / VEOLIA ENVIRONNEMENT / Vendée Globe

According to the Chilean Navy PRB was taken under tow at around 0145hrs early this morning and is making about 10 knots towards Port Williams, home of the 33 metres patrol vessel Alacalufe which attended to Vincent Riou and Jean Le Cam last night after PRB’s compromised rig gave up in 25 knots of breeze some 8 miles NW of the Cape Horn light.

The duo had been joking only hours earlier about making Vendée Globe history as the first ever duo to pass Cape Horn on the same boat, when they believe the temporary lashing which they had put in place to support the broken port outrigger gave way and the mast tumbled over the side. Riou has not been able to start his engine for some time, and due to their proximity to the islands, there was insufficient time to set a jury rig, although they have retained the boom.
Making around 10 knots under tow, PRB is due to reach Port Williams at around 0845hrs GMT this morning.

Based around the distance to finish calculated using the theoretical route, Roland Jourdain seeems to be well placed to challenge Michel Desjoyeaux. 250 miles further west, the skipper of Veolia Environnement is already 20 miles further north than the current leader. The two are not tackling the small low-pressure systems off the coast of Argentina in the same way and with a lead of only a hundred miles the position of Michel Desjoyeaux does look tenable, racing in 20-25 knots of SW’ly winds. The fight is on and there will be plenty of opportunities for tactical plays with major upsets possible. Armel Le Cléac’h (Brit Air) is experiencing much quieter weather and is heading due north at 12-15 knots after rounding the islands off the tip of Patagonia.

Sam Davies, who can expect to be promoted to fourth place when PRB’s expected retirement is announced, has had to replace her boom vang overnight, and is making steady progress again now with Cape Horn 1000 miles ahead of her now. She is taking a southerly route, only 100 miles north of a set of well tracked icebergs. Behind her Marc Guillemot (Safran) has a deficit of about 390 miles but has indicated again that he is minded to stop again to repair his mast track. In effect he has a net 50 hours of time compensation over Sam to be subtracted and may spend some of that trying to be repair his mainsail luff track for the climb up the Atlantic.

For once the Pacific is peaceful too. Brian Thompson, GBR, (Bahrain Team Pindar) is making a steady 9-10 knots and was about 130 miles from the SE Pacific gate, the final one, at 0400hrs this morning.
Dee Caffari, GBR, (Aviva) is back up to speed this morning in better breeze but has lost out to Arnaud Boissières (Akenas Veranda) overnight who is 28 miles ahead. Steve White (Toe in the Water) struggles to escape the clutches of the a high and this morning was only advancing at 1.5 knots but had reported again that he will be taking opportunities presented to work on the re-calibration of his auto-pilots.
At the trailing edge of the fleet, Raphaël Dinelli (Fondation Océan Vital) is also stuck in light airs off Stewart Island as is Norbert Sedlack (Nauticsport-Kapsch), who can look forward to a quiet day, giving him time to give his boat a thorough inspection, but will scarcely reflect on the fact that leader Michel Desjoyeaux is now this morning closer to the finish in Les Sables d’Olonne than they are to him.