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(December 5, 2024; Day 26) – The Vendée Globe story continues to be how the leaders in the Indian Ocean – Charlie Dalin and Sébastien Simon – are outrunning a monster low pressure system as they pass the Kerguelen Islands. While Louis Burton’s issue has proven race ending, Dalin and Simon are thriving where others dared not.
Dalin seemed to be almost enjoying his race which right now is not against his rivals but against the low pressure system. At the back of the center of the low there are ten metre waves and brutal 60 knots gusts, but if he and Simon can succeed in staying ahead of the worst of the voracious system, the gains will be significant.
“I am feeling a bit tired, I need to get a bit of rest,” admitted Dalin. “But apart from that I am all good. I am racing this monster of a low pressure. It is not going too bad and I am managing to keep up with my routing, which is good.
“I am in a pretty good place right now, making good progress towards the east, every little gain towards is pure gold, it means we will be caught by the low pressure further east which means I will have a smaller sea state and less strong winds, which is good. So I am fighting hard to stay ahead for as long as possible. I will get caught eventually that is for sure. But the later, the better.
“The GRIB files are working pretty well, at the moment regarding wind speed and direction and then I am looking at satellite imagery through Windy (weather forecasting website) and so I am monitoring the progress of these two weather systems in these two ways.”
He describes the process which brought him to decide to stay south and challenge the big system.
“It is true I was the south most boat at the time but nonetheless I still had an opportunity to shift north, but it would have cost me, it would probably have been more costly for me than the others. But in terms of decision making, I spent ten hours in front of the computer, running hundreds of routings, trying to work out what choice was good and for what reason.
“I still don’t know if it is a good choice. We will find out in a bit more than 24 hours. But it took me a long time to come up with this decision. And it has been fun, it has been fun to sail against this monster. I try not to watch “him” too much on Adrena (routing software program) because if you look too much you see the red arrows of 60kts and I say to myself ‘I don’t want to be there’. I am like a horse only looking forwards at the course with the blinkers on.
“I try to sail fast to the east, every metre is important. What is great is these fast foilers are letting us do new things which before you could do only with multihulls.”
Race updates – Tracker – Ranking – Facebook
Attrition:
Nov. 15: Maxime Sorel (FRA), V and B – Monbana – Mayenne – ankle injury, mast damage
Dec. 4: Louis Burton (FRA), Bureau Vallée – rigging failure
The Vendée Globe, raced in the 60-foot IMOCA, is the elite race round the world, solo, non-stop, and without assistance. On November 10, 40 skippers started the 2024-25 edition which begins and ends in Les Sables d’Olonne, France.
Armel Le Cléac’h, winning in 2017, holds the record for the 24,300 nm course of 74 days 03 hours 35 minutes 46 seconds. Only one sailor has won it twice: Michel Desjoyeaux in 2001 and 2009. This is tenth running of the race.
Source: VG2024, SSN
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