Like an over excited youngster on Christmas morning, Seb Simon (Groupe Dubreuil) had to wait until after breakfast time before he could pass Cape Horn for his first time. But for all that some patience was required of the skipper from Les Sables d’Olonne, he was rewarded by what might be described as ‘brochure conditions’, winds gusting to 47kts and a fierce, dark slate grey sea
Much as he would have liked to have been granted a picture-postcard passage such as was afforded the two leaders late on Monday night and into Tuesday morning, Simon passed more than 30 miles off, seeking to avoid the lee of the high, bluff land and to find a more consistent breeze and some searoom.
Seb Simon passed at 0921hrs UTC this morning, 1 day 9 hours after leader Richomme. Full of the joys of exiting the Pacific, Simon exclaimed,“Thank you Pacific, ciao Big South and long live the Atlantic. That is a big thing done”, added the skipper of Groupe Dubreuil who, like the two up in front of him has slowed to boat speeds in single figures.
Richomme extends at Falklands
From having passed Cape Horn with a slender 9 minutes between them, Yoann Richomme has seen his lead over Charlie Dalin grow to close to 100 miles by this Christmas afternoon. His westing, running the ice exclusion zone on his starboard side, saw him retain the breeze for longer than Dalin who slowed first in the zone of lighter winds. But Richomme’s speeds eased too this morning,
“I have just woken up, when I went to sleep I was doing 25kts and when I woke up we are doing 7kts. But a bit of calm is good”. After the best part of a month of big seas and winds on the Southern Ocean, the feeling of decompressing on the Atlantic climb is almost inevitable given their benign weather. And Richomme looked a different sailor today, able to sit upright in his custom sprung chair and having the pleasure of walking round his boat near to upright and not being pinballed off the walls of his boat.
“The sea has been great since rounding Cape Horn. Since rounding we have had great conditions with a generally very fast crosswind. That allowed us to make good progress towards the North,”
Richomme, as ever is not getting get carried away though and remains focused on the transition phase that he will have to negotiate before hitting the wind to speed up to the latitude of Rio de Janeiro. “I need to recover a bit and there’s a bit of cleaning to do on board the boat,” said the sailor who is also relishing the gradually rising temperatures. The fur hat and big socks should go back in his bag.
@VendeeGlobe
#VG2024
Interested in seeing more Offshore News?
