Great American III in the Vendée Globe - Rich Wilson

Even the young ones are muttering about being shattered, because of the changes in wind strength & direction over the last 24hrs or so.

Early on, I tried to explain just how much work was invloved in tacking an Ocean 60, in my blog http://www.newfreebooters.com/ , but I don't sail the brutes. Now I can post a link here and let folks hear what it's all about from somebody who is going to be changing and trimming sails 24 hours a day for 3 months. Once again Rich - Bon Courage!

16/14N 22/19W, wind NE at 15, speed 10 kts, course 200deg, approaching ne islands of Cape Verde Islands.

Went through the night last night with the reacher and a reef in the main. Was very tired, and so even this morning, when the wind lightened, I held off changing sails not wanting to completely overreach in my fatigue. Last night was a beautfiul night, but the radar detector kept going off for th second night in a row, but I saw no ships. I think that airplane radars may be setting it off. At any rate, it is hard to sleep with the alarm going off and you have to go on deck to look for ship lights.

This afternoon I finally lowered the reacher and hoisted the big genaker. I targeted a full-on effort to do the swap in 30 minutes. Made it to the minute. Part of my fatigue through midday was also that in gybing this morning several times, the last one had a sheet go over the side and get jammed in the windward port rudder, between the blade and the cassette that holds it. This was difficult to resolve. As Francis Stokes once said, "the sea finds out everything you did wrong", and I made a mistake in letting the extra sheet go over the side, then to catch up on the rudder.

The rudders are supposed to kick up out of the water if they hit something hard enough, but the rudders on this boat don't come out of the water all the way. So after the sheet hit the rudder, it only came out part of the way. A rudder that is partially out of the water is a bad situation, because if it gets hit by a wave from the side, it could break. I knew I had to get the rudder out of the water as quickly as I could.

I put a line on the rudder and hoisted it clear of the water. Then I hung out over the stern with the boat going about 10 knots, and I pulled on the line until I was able to work it free. Going downwind as we were, the boat can use the effect of both rudders, so we were lucky not to have a wipeout or gybe.

A bird came aboard late afternoon. I took a short video and will send it in. It's never a good sign, either the bird is sick, or injured, or old, if they can't just fly along at sea, and need a lift. Hopefully, we'll get to within 20 miles of the first Cape Verdean islands, and he'll go, to try to get to land. He's beautfiul, white, preening, and when I go to the cockpit (he's standing on the stern now), he'll fly to the masthead and stand up there, hopefully taking care with our instruments.

Had a Radio Vacation today with Vendee Globe headquarters at Gare Montparnasse, and this time we had several others on the line, not skippers, but Dr. Richard Lapchick, from Northeastern University who has been very creative in using sports for beneficial means for students. He was joined by the Cultural Affairs office of the US Embassy in Paris. He is visiting for a big EU meeting on sports. So a good round day it was.

Had a cockpit shower late in the afternoon. That was very refreshing, as its getting hot, and the sail changes are very strenuous.

13/25N 24/31 W, about 100 nm south of Cape Verde Islands. Genaker (biggest jib) and one reef in the mainsail. Making about 11 knots in 16 knots of NE wind.

Noticed that the port tube that holds the sheaves that control the keel had rotated on its axis and moved slightly out of its position. Remembered that when serviced, sledge hammers were involved. I was nervous that perhaps I could not get it back to where it is supposed to be. But after consultation with the experts at Maine Yacht Center, Brian Harris and Will Rooks, I was able to twist and push it back to where it was before it moved. Not sure if the end caps will keep it in place, but it will be just one more thing on the long list to keep an eye on.

Porpoises came by this morning in the dark, no dummies they, they don't jump on the boat like the flying fish. If in daylight, would have taken some video. Great to have them alongside for a while.

Have split with Pakea since we gybed to the west last night, and then back south this afternoon. We'll see who was either right or lucky.

Slightly overcast skies, will be a dark night.

I think that we're through the doldrums, finally.

Yesterday was a bad day. We sailed into the doldrums in the dark of the morning, under a cloud so black and foreboding that it seemed as though we were entering a tunnel or cave. We got through, but then it started to get light as the sun rose, and by mid-morning we had 0.0 boatspeed. The sails were slatting (flapping around and not filled with wind), and this is very bad for them. Eventually I rolled up the solent to save it.

These conditions were very frustrating, since I knew that the front of the fleet had gone straight through the doldrums without such difficulties. Then late in the afternoon we got a little wind from a black cloud moving to the west, which we chased it at 2 knots. We tagged along with the cloud, going whereever it was going. Then some rain, took a shower, then a bit of wind, and then.... a torrential downpour with a big squall, wind blowing, water blowing, had solent and a reef, and suddenly (hadn't seen this since 1993) the wind reversed direction 180 degrees in an instant. It blew the mainsail and solent back into the mast and runners, and up against the boom vang/preventer, blowing the vang fuse.

I was hand steering and tried to jam the tiller back to have the boat gybe back, and since the keel was now on the wrong side we were laying right over at about 60 degrees, the boat turned rapidly. The wind stayed in its relative direction, and we did, I believe, 1.5 circles with the boat. The wind had gone around in a circle with us and kept the boat pinned. It happened in 1993 on the trimaran, but I haven't seen it since. It's an incredibly scary situation since the boat is completely out of control, it's blowing, it's torrentialy downpouring, there's no help, and you know that at the end of the manoeuver there is going to be a huge crash as the boat gybes. Eventually it did, but it was very difficult and very scary. The good new is that everything except the fuse on the vang held together.

Then into the night, we finally stabilized the boat a few hours later (still in the doldrums) using the staysail and 2 reefs in the main. The weather files showed 5-10 knots of wind, but instead we had 33 knots across the deck and we sailed hard on the wind with the boat laying over, again hoping everything holds together against the big strain. But these are the doldrums, and anything can happen.

This morning, we're under full sail, full cant, full board, making 9.5 knots upwind in pursuit. Ocean Vital Foundation, skippered by Raphaël Dinelli, caught up with us yesterday. I can see them to windward, and maybe we can catch them back.

95 miles to the equator. We thought that we'd escaped the doldrums yesterday, but that was not the case. On the weather maps you could see the pressure gradient chasing us south and ovetaking us again. 13 sail changes in 15 hours last night and this morning. It was beyond fatiguing trying to keep up with the squalls and light air spots, to keep the boat moving in the right direction. It was also very painful for my back and rib, but I can't stop for that. That huge black cloud up there? Will we intersect it? If yes, we better take a reef right now... if not, well then we'll risk being wrong and have to take the reef during the tumult. Have done that several times.

It's so hard to know for sure whether my sail choices -- my decisions -- are going to be the right choices. Sometimes I put a reef in, and then the squall cloud goes by without any wind at all; other times I may not put in a reef and then the wind that comes is more than we can handle. Very difficult to get it right all the time.

The good news is that I did get a snooze or two. The computer started acting up yesterday. I should have known it would happen, because it's too hot here in the cabin for it, particularly when charging the batteries with the engine. So I turned off the computer, network, monitor and inverter, to cool them down. Then I didn't fire them up again until late last night, and then only for an hour or so. It will be a little less convenient to have to turn on the computer every time I want to use it, but that choice will hopefully save the computer--and save some amperes and power on the boat, too.

I've been flying flags today: Jackson School and Scott Hamilton's prayer flags from the base of Everest. They all look good aboard ship.

Hoping to get to the southern hemisphere soon.

Hello Richie,

You are in our thoughts and prayers each day and we hope that you are comforted by your family, friends, and God's presence as you traverse His little blue planet. Best wishes for a safe and speedy passage.

Joyeux Noel

Ken Cormier