With the cold front shifting very quickly across 40° South, the pace has really gone up a notch, to the extent that all the teams have sailed in excess of 500 miles in 24 hours with ease. On a more manageable sea, the north-westerly wind is kicking out over twenty knots of breeze, though Groupama 4 will be the first to slow down once the zones of high pressure settle into position behind the front.
“After a fairly hard first week of racing, things have been pretty routine with the tradewind system we’ve been in since Fernando de Noronha. It is frustrating not to be sailing neck and neck with the others so we can gauge Groupama 4’s potential. However, taking options is part and parcel of racing: sometimes you win, sometimes you lose… Right now things are beginning to get more difficult with the return of the cold and the constant dampness. We haven’t had to put in a lot of manoeuvres, which means that we aren’t too tired. We’ve got the time to trial the different sail configurations, and really get a feel for the boat: Groupama 4 is an excellent boat and we should be able to enjoy some very good legs. I also think that we’ve made a good sail choice: we know that on certain points of sail with eased sheets in the breeze, the boat is powerful and really very quick”, said Charles Caudrelier at the noon radio link-up this Thursday.
A very fast stretch…
In any case, Groupama 4 is in perfect condition after virtually three weeks of racing, thanks to some outstanding preparation on the part of the shore team. As such the crew can exploit her potential without restrictions. Evidence of this lies in the high average speeds racked up over the past few hours with surfing at over 25 knots and a total of 516 miles covered in 24 hours. Naturally, during this same period, the leader Telefonica has racked up 533.8 miles and Camper 540.6 miles, but these two crews are benefiting from some better sailing conditions due to being further South and further East, within the front. These boats will also continue to pull off such performances over the next 24-36 hours as, contrary to Groupama 4, they’ll be able to remain hooked onto the western edge of a system dishing out a dozen or so knots of south-westerly wind for longer. This wind should enable them to reach Cape Town without too much difficulty this weekend, whilst Franck Cammas and his men will have to deal with a weak system stretching out for over 800 miles from the finish. Indeed, from tonight, Groupama 4 will stall considerably in breezes of less than ten knots along an area which is bordering the so-called roaring forties!
“The ranking for this first leg is unlikely to change now. Indeed given the grib files, we’re likely to finish the leg with quite a deficit as the strong winds will abandon us over the coming hours. That means that our deficit is set to increase. I don’t think Camper will be able to make up ground on Telefonica either, unless the latter suffers damage. For the past 24 hours we’ve had between 20 and 25 knots of breeze at 130° to the wind, with the temperature dropping and lots of humidity in the air… We’re adding more fleece layers now, but there’s not too much spray as we’re sailing downwind. The atmosphere is rather greyish, with a few albatrosses about. In principle we’re soon going to see our progress slowed because we’ll get swallowed up by the high pressure. We’ll probably have to choose between dipping South again to hook onto a new depression, or threading our way to the finish in light winds: ultimately Franck is considering taking a route halfway between the two so as to preserve the gear as we should finish third in any case”, explained Groupama 4’s so-called `performer’, Charles Caudrelier, whose role includes studying the boat’s performance.
Surgical operation
Waking up with a start from a deep sleep, Erwan Israël injured the area above his eye by smacking up against a reinforced area of the deck above his bunk. It wasn’t serious but, after consultation with the official doctor for the Volvo Ocean Race, it was decided that a couple of stitches were the best solution. However, in 25 knots of breeze, big seas, high speed, the dead of night and no in situ experience, `doctor’ Charles Caudrelier, ably assisted by Jean-Luc Nélias and Martin Strömberg, was a bit tense…
“I was a bit anxious about it because I really didn’t want to hurt him. However, Erwan is a brave patient! Fortunately the boat wasn’t rocking about too much at that stage and I did have my training on pigs to back me up… Making the first move is the hardest thing, but once I’d started, the operation went smoothly without hurting him. It seems to have worked well as Erwan’s in good shape with a fabulous eyebrow arch! Added to that, it hasn’t become infected. Obviously it did remind me of the Vendée Globe when Bertrand de Broc had to sew up his own tongue…”
Position of the competitors in the Volvo Ocean Race in the first leg from Alicante – Cape Town at 1400 UTC on 24/11/2011
1. Telefonica – 1,019.3 miles from the finish
2. Camper – 101.8 miles astern
3. Groupama – 339.1 astern of the leader
Puma – retirement
Abu Dhabi – retirement
Team Sanya – retirement