Napi hírek a Banque Populaire V fedélzetéről Brian Thompson jóvoltából:
Day 45 - la dernier jour
A phone call from Brian:
http://soundcloud.com/turning-block/brian-thompson-heading-for-the
Hi All
Day 44
Day 42
Day 41
Day 40 - New Year day
Day 39
Day 38 - again
Day 38
Day 37
Day 36
Day 35 - Rio
Boxing day
Xmas
Karácsonyi üdvözlet Brian-től.
Day 32
Brian
Cape Horn
Day 45 - la dernier jour
A phone call from Brian:
http://soundcloud.com/turning-block/brian-thompson-heading-for-the
Hi All
Jean Baptiste came on deck this morning and said to us "fast, but not furious", and that's been our mantra. Despite doing outstanding speeds the last 2 days we have not been furious, always been in control..The conditions have just been great with small seas and winds of 25-30 knots..we have been changing between the solent and small gennaker, and between one and two reefs in the main..
Top speed that I did on my last watch was 43.6! That's the fastest I will get to till the finish, as the wind will drop
slowly..it might well have been my last full on blast on this mighty machine..
However much we want to get to the finish, to accomplish the goal, to lift the stress of going this fast for so long, to see family and friends, to do other things than live in a carbon tunnel. There is part of you, a small but valid one that is sad to see it ending - could this be the best trip of a lifetime?
So am enjoying these last miles, these last hours as we blast past Ireland, the Scillies and onwards to the finish..
This afternoon has been busy, and like seeing the first jet contrails, the first fishing boats, we are experiencing the first signs of approaching civilisation, of reengagement with the land world..
At 1100 we had a satellite being guided to sit overhead to take picture, at 1300 a French navy/coastguard jet, a Falcon 50, from our boat's home port of Lorient, came to take video..
At 1500 we will get a call from the President of France...
It's all going on here!
ETA 2200 to midnight tonight. One last watch to go..and I think our lucky watch streak is going to continue, with having the start, finish and most of the major Capes during our time on deck..
Now with on reef and medium gennaker the wind is starting to drop a little.
We are having the most unorthodox arrival at the finish line - from the North. We almost certainly have now gone the furthest North (52N) and furthest South (62S) of any Jules Verne attempt..
More later after a brief afternoon sleep..
Brian
Guess how far we have to go.. 1000 MILES !
We have just turned over our countdown odometer from 1001 to 999!
So to now break the existing record, we have to average about 10 knots. 2 days ago, near Bermuda, it was 17 knots, and back at the Equator, 6 days ago, it was a 13 knots average required.
For a while there, we were slipping backwards on the record, and it could have turned out badly if the weather did not follow the predictions., as we were a long way from home..Fortunately it did, so now we are relatively secure speed wise, it's down to the great unknowns - equipment breakage and unseen floating objects, that could scupper our dreams now..We are being as prudent as possible, sailing at a good pace, but in control at all times, so we hope that will cover most of the risk of breakage, The other is in the lap of the gods to a large extent..
The speed of this boat is very deceptive, when you are below, or in the cuddy on deck, or even on the helm looking forwards, it all seems relatively tame. But a couple of times today I have been reminded that 35 knots is very, very fast indeed.
Earlier I went to the leeward side, to look at the gennaker trim, and watched the wake firing off the leeward hull. It's unbelievable how fast that looks, and how strongly you get the impression of the boat hurtling through the water..
The second time, I was steering, and Chab was standing by me to take over. We both looked away from the bow for an instant, and BAM! We were hit by a block of water that had been thrown into the air by the bows. That block had hung in the air, motionless, for an instant, and then the beam, 30m back, and our upper bodies drove into it at 35 knots..it was like lying on the floor and a 25kg flour sack being dropped on your chest from a 4m height. Chab thought he had been punched in the head, though fortunately,he did not think it was me!
Normally when a watery wrecking ball like that comes through you crouch right down in a fast, reflexive move, but this time we missed it..However, it was extremely funny at the time, and I was glad to have had a good hold of the helm, to not get knocked off it..
Will send more later.,
Time for 1h 20m sleep..
Day 43
After 2 days of making almost zero progress to the finish, delightful sailing though it was, we are now making serious inroads into the remaining miles, clocking off over 30 miles every hour..equivalent to the Needles to Cherbourg in 2 hours, over and over again!
We are now firmly embedded in the perfect spot in the isobars squeezing between the Azores High and the approaching cold front. The wind is nearly 30 knots and we are sailing fast with 2 reefs, small gennaker and staysail.
A very familiar sail combination from the Southern Ocean, but not seen on board for the last 10 days of reaching up the Tropical Atlantic.
Our finest entertainment last night?during our night watch, was having to avoid a huge container ship that was coming towards us, slightly from our right hand side. We were on a collision course, and we were perhaps the only boats within a 100 miles. It often seems to happen like that..
We had a closing velocity of 50 knots with the ship, and it was not changing course for us, so we had to ease our sails, then luff a bit closer to the wind., to pass a hundred meters away from it..
Brian
Day 42
Going through the Sargasso Sea today - there is the weed everywhere..
We have not caught any of this weed on our foils, though last night we caught a plastic bag on the leeward rudder. We had to furl the gennaker, head upwind to slow down, then go backwards to clear the bag, then unfurl the gennaker and set off again..
But what is a plastic bag doing in the middle of the Atlantic? Someone must have thrown it off a vessel - not good. Like all racing boats, we keep every bit of non food or paper items till we get back to land.
Not much wildlife out here that we have seen at these speeds..
Wind is picking up today, now it's double yesterday's wind. We have18 knots and we are in the high 20's of boatspeed. Running downwind with full main, medium gennaker and staysail..
Still fantastic sailing conditions around the High Pressure system, and after what may be our final gybe this afternoon, we are heading more towards the Old World of Europe than the New World..Good news!
Yesterday evening in the lighter wind Pym and Manu made a thorough inspection of all the watertight compartments on the boat, and Florent went to the top of the mast and down again to completely check the mast. Pym and Florent have been tireless this whole voyage, they have always been on top of all the little maintenance jobs around the boat..
So from the West a cold front approaches, and the tightening of the isobars will slowly increase our wind speed during the night..But the plan is to always stay ahead of the front and in the optimum wind speed for us. We should be able to fine tune our position to do this. That's the wonder of the latest weather models from the US and Europe, of the routing software on board, and of having an extremely fast boat that can keep up with a speeding low pressure system!
Last night was incredible for the stars - even with half a moon shining. It was another great dawn and sunrise at the end of the night too. Our watch is the lucky one currently, having sunset and sunrise on our on watch times.
Anyway, it's time to prepare another freezedried dinner party for 14 this evening..
And the mighty Banque Populaire is now heading for the barn!
Brian
Day 41
Just come off watch, and we are gliding along 'gently' at 23 knots in 14 knots of wind. We have full main and medium gennaker up.
We are approaching the corner of this big, windless High Pressure area, so by this time tomorrow we should be well round the corner and curving our course towards home. We are currently still not 'heading for the barn', unless that barn was in Maine, USA...
We will be in the lighter airs of the High tonight before we touch the new Southerly winds that will take us home.
This morning was another 'good watch', - full of stars at first, with Ursa Major (the plough or the big dipper) to the North, pointing the way to Polaris, the Pole Star. All are stars of the Northern Hemisphere, and unseen by us for most of the last month..
Then dawn very slowly crept over us from the Eastern horizon, illuminating the boat lumen by lumen, and making it easier to steer the boat to the telltales on the gennaker.
And finally, we played with a series of early morning rain showers, steering the boat around them to keep in the best winds. In a boat like this, much faster than the wind, we can use the clouds to our advantage, rather than be a victim of them..
Anyway time for my off watch now, and time to get the sleeping bag out, just to have as a duvet. Temp down to a v.pleasant 22/23C.
We are now on the same latitude as Key West, Florida, and 800 miles NE of Antigua.
Thinking I might now be able to make the RORC Caribbean 600 race, in Feb from Antigua...a busman's holiday, as we say in the UK..
Brian
Day 40 - New Year day
Hope everyone is having a Good New Years Day. We have decided to spend our day off....sailing.
So it's been 40 days and 40 nights at sea, and we are just 2600 miles from the start/finish line. We have a lead of 2000 miles over the current record holder, on the same day. And we are heading for the Continent at 35 knots.
What could be more perfect? However, eagle eyed followers of the Banque Pop tracker may notice just one tiny detail that is wrong..we are heading for the wrong continent!
A Boston finish is just not going to be acceptable to the Jules Verne committee. So why are we heading for the New World, instead of the Old?
Near the Azores there is going to be a great expanse of light winds associated with the High Pressure, and therefore we are having to head well West to catch the wind from an approaching low pressure system that arrives from the the West. Then ride that wind all the way around the High Pressure to the finish. It's the Long Route, but it's our best option. At least with the speed of Banque Populaire we can position ourselves quickly around the oceans weather systems. We are rather like a surfer who has to paddle out further offshore as a big set arrives..it's going to be worth it - when that atmospheric wave arrives..
On deck it's great conditions, we are sailing at 120 TWA in 28 knots of wind With the staysail and one reef in the main. The sun is shining and it's a pleasure to steer the boat at 30-40 knots of speed.
We are at the latitude of Antigua, but it's not shorts and T shirt sailing on board today..We need full on protection from the flying spray, so we are wearing our Musto foul weather top and trousers, and donning Gath surf helmets to be able to look forwards..
The spray flies off the front of the central hull each time it lands back in the water, then divides around the front beam and flies back horizontally to hit the cockpit area..for the big lumps of water, it's worth ducking, as the force in the water can knock you backwards..
With the surf helmet, which is like a light motorbike helmet, you gain a lot more vision for helming without the spray firing into your eyes, but you do lose out on 2 others senses, that of hearing, you miss out on what others are saying around you, and of touch, feeling the wind speed on your face..
But it's a deal well worth making..
Now we are concentrating on intercepting that low pressure and riding it till the finish..
New Years Eve went well last night, no wild nights for anyone, but we did add to our normal freezedried food with some pate de foie gras and some saucisson to start..
Day 40 on Cheyenne, the big catamaran that we set the RTW record in 58 days, with Steve Fossett, we were just rounding Cape Horn, on St Patricks Day..
On Day 40 of the Vendee Globe solo race, I was somewhere south of Australia..
It's good to be on Banque Populaire!
Brian
Day 39
Another year draws to a close and on board Banque Populaire we are hoping the beginning of 2012 is better than the end of 2011!
Because since we left the doldrums, we have been reaching in 30 + knots of wind, with a lumpy sea state. Not much fun, and we have reduced sail to 2 reefs and the ORC, which is a large storm jib sail.
A few hundred miles up the track the Tradewinds are less strong so come 2012, we should be in much better conditions.
Not much sleeping possible as you are thrown around in your bunk by the boats motion so much, but the off watch are at least getting some horizontal time, interspersed with moments of vertical movement!
Going on watch in a few minutes, and dawn will follow soon afterwards, so the will be able to see these waves better, and try to avoid the potholes..
Just time for another bowl of hot porridge, to mark our position on the wall chart, and put on the Musto foul weather gear, then into action!
Happy New Year!
Brian
Hi All
Just an update on the world around our small boat..
We are now back in the Doldrums. Its squally, with the wind and waves shifting now from the SE to the NE..
As we are heading North, it's turned from a Magic Carpet ride to a WRC rally car one. It's back to controlling the speed rather than maximizing it, as we guide our machine over the rough and bumpy aquatic road..
We should be out of the doldrums during the first part of the night, we hope.
In the natural world, of course the magnificent albatross have long gone, and been replaced by a variety of tropical seabirds.
Most of them seem uninterested in the boat, we just pass them by, rather than be the pied piper to an avian troop, like in the Southern Ocean..except for one large white booby bird, which flew just 5 or 10 metres above our heads today, staring down at us intently for 30 mins.
Of course there are many other flying creatures, launching themselves out of the water when they sense us coming, yes, there are flying fish everywhere.
Any avid readers of this blog might remember the strange apparition in the sky on Xmas Day night. It looked like a searchlight pointing into the sky.
Well, our brilliant shore router, Marcel van Triest, has discovered that it was indeed a comet, which has been named Comet Lovejoy, and it's a Kreutz comet, that will only be seen well in the Southern Hemisphere. It is one of the 'great' comets of recent times. We were so lucky to see it, and to see it unexpectedly, so that we could be both amazed, intrigued and confounded, like in earlier times. And we are also lucky to be around in 2011, when we can so quickly discover the fascinating reality of it, even from the centre of the Atlantic Ocean...
Brian
Day 38
"Hey, great watch" exclaims the always ebullient Yvon as we go below after our 4 hours on deck. "Really great watch" adds Thierry Chab and Pym, my other two watch mates.
We normally say that between our gang of four unless the seas are terrible, or we make few miles to the finish, or we have to deal with squall after all squall during our watch. We always try to finish on a high note..
But this watch was extra good, we had flat seas, good winds, made more than a 100 miles to the finish AND we crossed the Equator, moving ourselves from the Southern to the Northern Hemisphere, and in the process, breaking two records..
I was lucky enough to be on the helm doing 35 knots as we counted down 0.02S, 0.01S, 0.01N!!
The 3rd small bottle of Champagne Mumm we have carried was opened, and some of the bubbly nectar is first given to Neptune, to thank him for a safe passage through the Southern Seas..then comes from the saucisson and the Toblerone, all being shared between the crew and that God of the Sea.
So we have broken another World Record too, the Equator to Equator record, and one of the Jules Verne passage records, Cape Horn to Equator.
Now we have the task of getting to the finish in the next 10 days. Its 3300 miles, point to point..Of course, it's entirely within our capabilities to do that, but we still need to be careful with the boat, not have any big roadblocks with the weather and have a healthy dose of good luck..
Currently we have an advance of 1500 miles on Groupama 3, the current Jules Verne record holder..
Brian
Day 37
Hi everyone - one more day to the equator..
It is absolutely fantastic sailing here in the Tradewinds...
Loick and Juan are very happy as we are sailing with minimum risk to the boat, and at 100% of our polars. (our theoretical top speed for the current wind speed and angle).
The rest of our crew are very happy too, working the boat northwards at 25+ knots..the wind is from 65 degrees off the bow at around 18 knots and we have the full main and staysail up. On most boats this would be steady but unexciting sailing, but on Banque Populaire, at these speeds, and with the sheer power in the boat, its really exhilirating...
The seas are surprisingly flat for the wind speed, so there is no spray on deck. There are just a few, small puffy cumulus clouds in the bright, blue sky, and the wind is steady.
Still working hard on the sail trim, so each watch passes quickly, as we move from trimming to driving, and back again. On the average day I would drive for about 3 hours, and each second of those hours is full on concentration. We are trying to maximise our speed and optimise the course within the parameters we put in to preserve the boat for the long haul.
It's a bit like in Formula 1 racing where the drivers and engineers have to manage their tires and fuel consumption during the 90 minute race, so the cars are not always at 100% of their best lap time, but the drivers are still wringing every bit of speed they can out of their cars..so we also push the boat to the max we can, and any limitations are normally imposed by a rough sea state. Here in these smooth waters we can redline it!
After weeks of sub 5C temperatures, ending just 4 days ago, it's now a balmy 25C in the water and 27C in the air..I am not going to complain about the heat, I promise!
It's great to be able to get out of your bunk (no, its not too hot there!) in your shorts and T shirt, and come on deck without having to put on boots, foul weather gear, hats, balaclavas, gloves, etc.. Just sunglasses and hat, and in the night perhaps a wind proof top, as there is about 35 knots apparent across the deck..
Last night was great, no strange lights in the sky, just the moon that is waxing, and Jupiter being the brightest objects in the sky. It's going to be great timing from here into the finish with the moon growing bigger and spending more time in the night sky each passing day..making up for the hours of daylight that are rapidly shortening, as we head North..
Behind us last night were the 2 Clouds of Magellan, which can be best seen in the Southern Hemisphere. They look like faint and tiny cumulus clouds, floating perhaps just 2000metres overhead..They are, in fact, other galaxies, millions upon millions of miles away... Made me at least attempt to contemplate how enormous our universe is..
But right now am thinking more about the 580 miles to the equator, and about breaking the equator to equator record currently held by a certain BRUNO Peyron. His younger brother Loick, is of course skippering the mighty Banque Populaire..tense family Christmas next year? I think not...
Brian
Day 36
Sailing upwind on starboard tack in 18 knots of wind, full main and staysail up, it's bright sunshine, and that sun is pretty much directly overhead now.
We passed into the Tropics today, and there about 1200 miles to the equator, and 4500 total to the finish off Ushant Island. Next milestone is the Equator and we will be trying to break Loick's brother Bruno's record from Equator to Equator..
It's precision sailing now, with much fine trimming of the sails to get the last little bit of speed through the subtly and ever changing winds and waves.the helmsman is key, he is best placed to see the new wind arriving and can tell how the boat is balanced by the speed, heel angle, and rudder angle,
Very different to the Southern Ocean sailing, where the sails were very well eased, so there was less trimming and most of the control was then through the helmsman, who was not necessarily trying to always go as fast as possible, but to pick the right speed and angle to negotiate each wave safely..
Brian
We are getting up the South Atlantic even faster than we hoped. We are past the first High Pressure to the West, and we went through a stationary front off Rio last night, and are now sailing around the final giant weather system until the doldrums - the St Helena high, placed to our East. This feeds the tradewinds that blow past both the Africa and Brasilean coasts..Currently we are receiving NE winds from the High, so we are sailing upwind on starboard tack, hoping to squeeze past the bulge of Brasil..
It's great sailing; a bright blue sea and sky, puffy white cumulus clouds, steady winds and crystal clear visibility - at least 50 miles, as we can clearly see the top of big clouds, whose bases are far over the horizon..
The wind speed is 17 knots and we have just changed from the Solent to the staysail, whilst keeping a full mainsail..we have also put a short tack in to port, to get further into the favorable wind bend around the High Pressure.
And recently, we have had encounters with humans, cetaceans and possibly aliens....
Firstly we saw a ship, our first visual indicator of other humans for 4 weeks, as we have not even seen the contrail of an aeroplane in that time..the ship was heading across our path, from South America towards South Africa..
Secondly, we saw a whale, possibly a Finback, but I need a book to check. It was heading on the opposite course to us, at about 5 knots speed. Fred, at the helm, saw it first, seeing it's puffs of breath shooting 2m into the air.it was swimming alone and its c30 ton bulk passed about 40m down our port side. It was fantastic to see such an amazing animal, but I do hope the whale realized that we were there too..whales and fast multihulls need to keep a healthy respect for each other, as we do both of us a serious injury if we collided.
And thirdly, there was the most bizarre light in the sky the night before last, Christmas Day night, it was like one of those searchlights outside a nightclub, shining up into the sky from the South..it went from the horizon vertically up to about 25/30 degrees, so not as high as those searchlights, but that same kind of narrow, white beam..
It was really odd, and it stayed there all night, so everyone saw it, and had a different opinion on what it might be. It did not spin round like the stars, it stayed vertical..The only thing that could be agreed upon, is that nobody, in all their miles at sea, had seen anything like it before..
Yvon, in his usual humorous way, suggested it was an alien landing staircase. Fred thought it might be a solar reflection effect off Antarctica, it looked something like a giant comet to me, but not spinning in the sky might put paid to my theory..
Part of the great charm of being at sea, is to view unusual things..
Brian
Boxing day
What a difference 2 days make..Christmas Eve we had snow on the deck, enough for a snowball fight across the cockpit. I remember taking my big drysuit gloves off for a few minutes to do a fiddly job on deck, and then having to warm my hands over the open flame of the stove for several more minutes..it was that cold - with the air temp of 3C, the wind speed and the 100% wetness, the heat loss was really fast..it was an archtypical Southern Ocean weather, big wind and waves, downwind blasting..
In contrast, today we are wearing shorts and T Shirts, and drying all our sleeping bags and foul weather gear out on the netting, and showering (bucketing to be more accurate) for the first time in nearly a month.. There is blazing sunshine and we are trickling downwind in 8 knots of wind far offshore of Brasil..
To get from one scenario to the other, we had a really fast Christmas Day, reaching with Solent and one reef on the outer reaches of the depression that took us past Cape Horn..we had big waves from behind that we surfed on, hitting 43 knots at times, in just 21knots of wind..it was fantastic sailing, very safe for the boat, as the waves were too spaced apart to nosedive into, and we had relatively small and bulletproof sails up..
Now we are getting round one high pressure to our West before we tackle the main high that is off to our NE. We have just gybed onto starboard around this first high.
The swells from that Southern Ocean low are behind us again after that gybe, so it's pretty smooth, and Florent is going up the mast for another rig check. Fingers crossed its all ok. We have done about 15,000 miles since his last check, in about this place..
I was looking at the wall chart that I have been marking our daily position on, and it looks like we have crossed our track from Day 8 to 9. So we have now completed a circumnavigation of the Antarctic continent, and of the Southern Ocean. In just 25 days! It's all been fast except for those 2 very pedestrian days in the Pacific Ocean.
The boat has just been brilliant, and the crew fantastic - it's been a dream run around the bottom of the planet. We had everything that you could want, big wind, big seas, squalls, icebergs, growlers, records tumbling, fog, cold, albatross, even some snow..the only thing missing, especially for the first timers, was a view of Cape Horn. On my part, I don't mind at all missing the Cape, it was still the perfect ride - on the world's fastest boat, and sailing in the deep south, like in those famous Whitbread/Volvo stories..
As it took us 8.5 days to get here, if we took the same time to get back to Ushant, we would be done in 43 days- if only it were so simple! It's going to take us much longer to return, with at least 2 days light airs around these high pressures, then it's upwind in the NE Tradewinds with a big loop to make around the Azores, so there are lots more miles than on the way down, and slower miles, so there is still all to play for, and we need to keep the boat in top shape..
Brian
Xmas
Karácsonyi üdvözlet Brian-től.
Day 32
Perhaps our last full day in the Southern Ocean, and we are getting the top of the range model - with all the trimmings..
Up to 43 knots of cold Southerly wind, big waves, water temp 5C, air temp 3C, surfing to 40knots speed, 3 reefs in the main, small gennaker, staysail, grey overcast skies, squalls.
So all the usual optional extras you would expect, but with the added bonus of snow showers - a Christmas Eve Special for early dawn Shoppers, only at Banque Populaire!
"At Banque Populaire we aim to match or exceed all other sailing experiences"
We are now half way between the Falkland Islands and South Georgia and in late morning will gybe north and make some more quick miles to 40S. We are slingshotting around a depression to our SE, which is giving us these strong winds. The cold waters are courtesy of the Antarctic Convergence Zone, a line which shoots north where we are, and delineates the super cold Antarctic waters fringing the frozen continent from the rest of the Southern Ocean.after the gybe we will rapidly get into warmer waters..
I'm now wearing a hat, a warm balaclava and a goretex balaclava today on deck, with dry suit gloves..With the wind chill it's nippy!
Happy Xmas everyone from the Southern Ocean on Banque Pop!
Cape Horn
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Just passed Cape Horn at dawn local time, though being over 100miles south of it, there was no chance to see tip of South America..
This is my 4th time around, and although it would have been great to see the land, I am just happy to be back in the Atlantic Ocean, with the boat in fine shape, and a good weather forecast for the next few days..
We had a celebration of a delicious and perfectly chilled bottle of Champagne Mumm, some chorizo sausage and our last two loaves of bread. A feast indeed..
We almost certainly now have the record for the widest rounding of the Cape by any racing yacht, to go with our likely furthest south for any racing multihull at 62S!
But of course, the serious, big one today, is that we on Banque Populaire have sailed faster from Europe to Cape Horn, rounding all the three 'Great Capes', than any vessel before..30 days and 22 hours..that is 1 day 6 hours ahead of Groupama3.
Now sailing East still, as we are not going to make the classic turn north at Cape Horn, but continue on this latitude to take advantage of the strong downwind conditions of a low pressure to our East. Once closer to the low, we can gybe and get a long way North in its good winds.
Currently we have 35 knots of wind and we are sailing with 2 reefs, small gennaker and staysail at 30 to 35 knots of speed, temp 6C..back to a normal day at the office in the Southern Ocean!
Normally rounding Cape Horn indicates a dramatic change in the weather - flatter seas, clearer skies, warmer waters, but for us no change for a couple of days. But they should be fast days, where we can put some miles in the bank over Groupama3, and that's what counts..
Going on deck now for four more hours of high speed surfing!
Brian
Day 30
The wind is slowly picking up now, up to 18-25 knots, and the mighty Banque Populaire is beginning to get into her stride again. Starting to see flashes of 35knots on the speedo as we sail downwind with one reef in the main, big gennaker and staysail..seas are still small, but we are getting ready for some heavy air downwind action in the near future. One of the jobs is to change the trim of the boat - to move weight to the stern, so the bows do not plough into the waves that we are overtaking..
That meant making a human chain of 10 people inside the long, thin central hull to move about 600kg of food and equipment from the middle to the stern..next is moving the 2 gennakers we are not using to the back beam, behind the helmsman. As the wind builds up towards Cape Horn we will be swoping gennakers from the big to the small, and putting in a second reef in the main. Then possibly going smaller than that closer to the Horn. Looks like an arrival at the Horn tomorrow late morning..
Over the last few days we have been traveling over some of the most remote places on the planet. We have been over 1500 miles from any land at times, so no other human being except us 14 were likely to be in that enormous circle with a radius of 1500 miles - as any other vessels would be unlikely here. Even the seabirds have been few in number here, ..the albatross have stayed away as there has not been enough wind and waves for them to soar on, and for many of the petrels we are too far from land. However, today the we have had about 8 small petrels flying with us, with black head and tail, white body and the most graphic white and black camouflage style markings on the wings. They looked like little fighter jets, and fly like them too, pulling big G forces as they spin around the boat. Saw 3 of them in close formation, turning as one, like a jet display team, fantastic..
The thing that struck me as they flew with us for the whole 4 hour watch, is when do they eat? I have not seen any bird yet pick anything up out of the water, they seem to be using us purely for entertainment, and even if they are not, and there is a purpose to flying with us, we are being well entertained by them..
Brian
Day 29 cont
This year we have been on a grand migration, like an Arctic Tern, on our maxi trimaran BP. One week after the summer solstice this June we were at 61N at the Shetland Islands, now at the summer solstice in the Southern Hemisphere we are at a symmetrical 61S...
The Arctic Tern travels from the Arctic to the Antarctic and back each year. It flies further than any other bird.. Feeling very lucky to be able to be able to do the same this particular year.
Brian
Day 29
When we were storming across the Indian Ocean 10 days ago, 2000 miles ahead of the record, we had dreamed of being at Cape Horn today, but the large detour around the ice zone, and then this roadblock of a ridge have shattered that pleasant dream..
So back in reality, for the last 2 days we have been downwind sailing, trying to find a way through this ridge that is moving East slowly. In the middle of it there is no wind, so we have so nearly gotten through it several times, but the wind dies on us, the ridge moves on, and we are still left on the west side, the door slammed in our face... Fortunately this ridge of no wind will finally start to migrate north tomorrow, with westerly winds coming in below it. So we have sailed far south, into the 'screaming' 60s latitudes, to be ready to go through when the door finally lets us past. You have to be an optimist in this record breaking game, so there is always some good news...Todays good news is that there is currently no wind at the Horn or going up the S.Atlantic, so we are not missing out on a fantastic ride north. In fact, we are looking quite fortunate that a low is going to hold off forming, till our delayed arrival, and then it should help us up to 40S in the Atlantic.. So we have lost loads of miles on Groupama3 lately, though we hope to be still ahead at Cape Horn. One could then imagine that cracks would show in the team, and people would get disheartened, but thats not the case at all. There is a lot of good humour on the boat, a lot of banter, joking and laughter, especially at the changes of watch, and that helps everyone to get over that pleasant dream of 29 days to the Horn..Loick is the prime joker, the most positive person you could hope to meet, and of course, that feeds Into the rest of the team. So more sailing with our maximum sail area today - big gennaker, full main and staysail..the windspeed should be in the teens, and although the seastate has been quite bad on starboard gybe, heading straight into a Southerly swell, that swell seems to be getting smaller now, and we should be mainly on port gybe.. It's midnight here now local time, with quite low cloud, though clear visibility. Just wanted to test the light intensity, and you can read the headlines on a magazine easily, but just not quite the small print. So no problem with looking ahead for ice from the helm with the naked eye, but according to the information we have, the ice is now just behind us..
Brian
Day 28
We are now sailing VMG downwind in 13 knots of wind with the big gennaker, full main and staysail. It's ironic that we have carried this big gennaker on the deck, right through the Atlantic Tradewinds, and the first time the wind is correct to hoist it, is at 58S, in the Southern Ocean, below the latitude of Cape Horn!
Unfortunately, we are traveling just behind a high pressure ridge, that is traveling eastwards at 15 knots. We have caught this ridge up during all the strong northerly winds we had before, but at present are having difficulty overtaking it and getting to the stronger Southerly winds on the other side.. Its pleasant sailing conditions.... for Greenland, with the sea and air temperature around 5C. True night never came, which is great, and the visibility is excellent, so we are not worried about hitting growlers tonight. The last 2 nights when we have been slightly north (darker nights) we have slowed down and continuously scanned ahead with radar, light intensifying camera and the Raymarine infrared camera. We passed pretty close to one growler, so they are certainly out here..
Brian
Day 26
We are still sailing upwind in the Southern Ocean - has nobody mentioned, that the brochure clearly stated that this part of the world cruise, was supposed to be a downwind sleighride!There is 25 to 30 knots of wind now, and a 'bumpy' seastate. The boat is crashing over the waves at 22 knots. We have just changed from one reef and staysail, to two reefs and staysail, as the vespertine light faded for our short night. Late this afternoon we passed about 4 miles to leeward of one iceberg, and saw ten growlers, between 5 and 1m high. The iceberg we saw from 12 miles out on the radar, (before we saw it visually), but the growlers did not show up at all well on radar. Fortunately the water temp is 8 or 9C, so the growlers should not get too far from the mother berg before melting. It's night now, so a careful lookout for us. Time to go on deck:.
Brian
Day 25
Since the encounter with the amazing ice display of The remnants of berg B15J we have been skirting the Northern edge of the known ice zone. Firstly in almost no wind, and now tacking upwind in 15 knots of wind.Our watch was on deck through the entire night - at least the 4 hours of it that we have here, and we were paying close attention to the radar. We were looking at various echos on the radar, rain clouds, fog banks, waves, and distinguishing them from possible icebergs, when an echo on the screen suddenly appeared that was unmistakably Unmistakeably an iceberg, about the size of a large ship.,we tacked away towards the north, about 4 miles before it, but it was not quite light enough yet to see it visually.. If you are going to sail in the iceberg zone, this is the way to do it! In flat water, and sailing upwind, so the speed is not too high, and you can easily change direction and even stop and drift back in the direction you came in..Sailing downwind in strong breeze it would take several miles to get the gennaker furled. Though right now sailing upwind in the Southern Ocean feels a bit more like the BT Challenge than the trophee Jules Verne! Am trying not to think at all about the miles we are losing to Groupama3, but that's why it's good to have had some miles in the bank, to be able to spend some of that lead to make the correct decisions to get to the finish first.. Day 25 and we have sailed further in that time than any other sailing boat. As a comparison, when I did the mini Transat in 2001, it took those 25 days to get to Salvador in Brasil. In the Vendee 2008, I had gotten to South of Cape Town, and in 2003 on Cheyenne's Round the world record we had just arrived south of Cape Leewin! Ciao, am off to my bunk, cannot stay awake any longer!
Brian
Day 24
A good days run today, looks like nearly 700 miles.Today started off with the usual grey mist, 30 knots of wind with 2 reefs and staysail, and during our watch, it turned into a glorious sunny day, with flat seas with a 3m swell from behind, the wind dropped to 25 knots and we could open the throttles again on the boat, putting up more sail and sailing a safe and consistent speed in the low to mid 30s..by the end of our watch we were sailing with full main and solent. It was great to steer the boat for speed and not in defensive mode, In the afternoon we arrived at the corner of the iceberg area, where the remnants of B15J are scattered. B15J Is the name of a massive berg that broke off the ice shelf about 3 years ago;. It was the size of Corsica, but it's now the size of Belle Isle, with lots of pieces ice around.. It was the most inrcredible sight, with huge table bergs and a numerous smaller bergs that had been eroded into little mountains. Plus lots of growlers.. I had seen bergs before nothing like this..we stayed on the north side of them, took photos and videos. Checked the radar settings and saw the bergs in our Raymarine infrared camera. As night fell we are paralleling the zone of bergs, and have light winds. After our great day yesterday of high speed and icy scenic attractions, we are now almost becalmed in the Southern Ocean at 52S. Wind 2knots! It is all expected, and we are going to have to be patient before the new NW wind arrives. We might well be going upwind again for a short while. It is all a necessary part of avoiding that area of heavy ice, that was seen by satellite, and proved in our visual inspection yesterday.. Although we will be losing a lot of miles to Groupama 3 today, we can, in addition to all the sail manouvers required in light airs, use this weather to make checks on the boat. We are going to check all 420 feet of the 3 hulls for any damage
Brian
Day 23
We have had over 40 knots of wind for about 15 hours, and it is now moderating to 35 knots. For a while we even furled up the storm job, and spent 3 hours just with the triple reefed mainsail, The problem that we were beam onto the seas and wind and it was hard to depower the boat so as keep the speed under control and yet have enough power Andre heel angle to stop the windward of the 3 hulls from slamming down into the seas.Loick had a great 'old school technique to help this problem - OCR Still reaching in strong breezes, now it's 32 knots of NW wind and we are sailing at 120TWA with 2 reefs and staysail. Most of the day we had 40 knots plus, and for 3 hours was sailing with just the triple reefed main. Later we went back to the storm jib, and used Loick's 'old school' technique of over sheeting the mainsail to stop the windward hull slamming down onto the waves too violently. It was a very rough period and Banque Populaire coped with it brilliantly. We tried to make it as easy on the boat as possible, We are sailing high to go round a big area of icebergs that are to our West. If we did sail straight we would save a lot of time, as by going North we are going to be sailing into an area of light winds.. But no choice, we know that there are a lot of bergs there, too dangerous. Fortunately after the light winds, it looks good weather to Cape Horn, so we may catch up much of what we lost in sailing round the zone..
Brian
Day 22
Easy miles today reaching in light winds at 57S. Big swell from behind helped keep our speed up, so even on this 'slow' day, we did over 500 miles..Now we have the expected upwind section and we are upwind with one reef and the staysail in 21kn of wind. Good wind chill outside! About to tack for 3 to 5 hours on starboard, then back to port tack. Wind will then shift to the North and will increase to 40 knots for at least 12 hours. That will be sporty on a trimaran..will be well reefed down.. Everyone fine on board and the boat in good shape. South of NZ on Day 22! Time to go on watch... Beating now into a nasty sea, with 2 reefs and the staysail up. we spent our 4hour watch trying to keep our boatspeed under control. Just in my bunk now, writing this on to my iPhone, but it's feels like I am in a WRC rally car, it's hard to hold on to the phone, let alone press the correct keys! Let's see what conditions are like in 3 hours! Now reaching in 40 knots of wind. 3 reefs and storm jib..speed around 30 knots. Limited visibility of about 100m due to the warm, moist air from the north blowing over the cold water. Its very bumpy down below, hard to sleep..The guys are lying down and getting some rest, but getting thrown around too much for any more than that. Have another 16 hours of this wind, so will look after the boat through the waves, as the main priority, and if we get tired enough we will sleep! Just ahead is the 180 degree of longitude, the dateline. We are now on the opposite side of the world to where we started, and in reality more than half way around the world in terms of the sailing miles we have to cover..As coming back up the Atlantic we should be able to take a more direct route than on the way down..
Brian
Day 21
Great sailing today at 57S in the Southern Ocean, clear skies all day. 30 knots of wind in the first part of the day, which most places would be a reason to cancel racing, or not leave port to venture out. But for us now, after so many days of heavy air downwind, it was a just nice quiet break!
Then it got lighter still in the afternoon to 18 knots, so we increased our sail area to the medium gennaker and full main. It's now 15 knots and set to drop further in next 24 hours, with the breeze heading to give some upwind sailing and tacking to come. Then the following 24 hours will be heavy airs beam reaching followed by more usual downwind sailing. So a very mixed bag of conditions in prospect.. Going upwind at 57S is going to bring some impressive wind chill numbers! Water was at 2C a few hours ago and is now at 5C. We are at the Latitude of Aberdeen in Scotland and Juneau in Alaska. Few if any sailing boats would ever come here. Round the world races now have mandatory ice gates, and so it's really only a Jules Verne attempt, that has no limits, that would come here. There are no islands to the South, we just passed 100 miles South of Maquarie Island, part of New Zealand, so no reason for a cruising boat to come here - we have the place to ourselves! And it was spectacular here in our private sea last night - at sunset we had 7 big albatrosses following us, and one would circle the boat, passing meters in front of the bow, and just above the water.. The light was taking so long to fade after sunset, that I finally realized, it was not going to fade at all! At midnight local time the light was now in the South, over Antarctica. And by one am it was slightly in the East, so dawn was here. It was an amazingly clear night.. 2 days ago we were at 43S, and we are now at 57S - the days character change so much in that distance. And 400 miles to our South, the sun would not have even set last night!
Brian
