Archives: Log

630 to 640 miles plus in the last 24 hours!  The Orange warhead is charging to the edge of the Antarctic Convergence zone. On board, the shifts continue as on the first day, with the right dose of pleasure derived from finally giving the counters a jolt. The attack is on. The elements are cooperative, and the maxi catamaran isn’t hesitating to keep the speedometer at nearly 30 knots for hours. Everything is going as well as it can in the most desolate place on Earth, despite the threat of a tropical depression hanging over the hooded sailors. The secret is in the speed: staying at the current flow of the ridge, and fighting the depression with speed. Orange has the means; Orange is giving it all she’s got: 37.8 knots during the day’s radio session.
Bruno Peyron, on a day marked by very great speeds, refuses to let his head swell. “We’ve been saying it since our entrance to the South; when the conditions are gathered – wind angle and strength, sea strength and state – Orange will accelerate, without excesses and without swaying from our watchword: preserving men and equipment.”

Gilles Chiorri:
“Every bump of a wave tosses us up 40 centimeters in our beds. You can imagine what the mast is taking upwind!”
“The sky is blue. The wind is strong again. We’re constantly going at between 20 and 25 knots, on a route that is still a little conservative to spare the mast. Tomorrow we’ll cross the route of the Lorient-Saint Barth transatlantic. The Figaro clan on board will try to join their pals to say hello to them.”

Bruno Peyron:
“Not yet any prognostic on our arrival. There’s still a lot to happen before we get there. Our time is pretty good so far. But the boat will demand our attention right to the end. Incidentally, Yann (Eliès) has shared us his dreams or rather his nightmares. What you need to know is that with our shortened sleeping rhythms, our dreams are both more violent and easier to recall. And last night Yann dreamed that I was giving the order – to the crew’s great dismay and to preserve the boat – for the mast to be replaced… by the boom!”

Full speed yesterday. Stuck last night at the entrance of the English Channel. This is the way of the Jules Verne Trophy. After shooting ahead at 25 knots, Orange found itself in the center of the depression. The boat was at a standstill last night. Movement this morning is slow. Dreams of coffee and croissants on this gorgeous Sunday in May have been forgotten. The big maxi will probably cross the finish line at teatime.
Ushant is straight ahead. The crew needs to cross the calm zones slowly and get to the edge of the depression system. The weak wind is easterly. Consternation last night when, for a moment, the boat hit hard against the sea. One reef and the staysail: the crew prefers to cut down. “The mast still preoccupies us,” reminds Peyron. “We tacked hard in the English Channel to find a more favorable angle for the boat. The calm is also part of this adventure,” points out the skipper. On board, the same serenity reigns: “I like these moments,” says Peyron. “A mixture of excitement and concentration, the joy of arriving and the vague nostalgia of knowing that something very powerful is about to stop.”

ENZA is claiming an official world record for 520.9 mile 24-hour run under sail.

The 92ft catamaran averaged 21.7 knots between the hours of 0700 GMT January 21 to 0700 GMT January 22, parelleling the African coasts off Sierra Leone.

“Just the mot incredible sailing”, radioed co-skipper Peter Blake. “There are smiles on the faces of everyone. We might have done better than 520.9 but for a spot of bother with the main traveller which gave Bazza (Barry McKay) the opportunity to exercise his DIY skills. It’s all fixed now and we are still averaging better than 20 knots with the wind backing to the north-east at 30 knots.”

(…) Still progressing well a wind just north of west at 30 knots and due to increase which might slow us a bit. The seas are building now. Just come off the helm. Was careeing happilydown a wave, perfectly under control, when I saw the speed : 29,7 knots. At that point decided it was, perhaps, time to lose the spinnaker.

Last night ENZA was nursed through a 50 knot southern Ocean storm as she passed just to the south of where, in February 1993, she hit a submerged object and was forced to abandon her original Trophee Jules Verne attempt.

Skippers Peter Blake and Robin Konx-Johston reported that the winds had eased to 34 knots by early morning but ENZA was still being thrown about by large, breaking seas.

“It has been a rough, windy night,” they said. “We have been well reefed down but, even so, it has been a very rough bumpy and wet ride.”

ENZA New Zealand claimed two more records early this morning when she passed 500 miles to the south of Cape Leeuwin on the southern-western tip of Western Australia.

The previous best for Ushant to Cape Leeuwin was 33 days, 7 hours, 48 minutes, set by Commodore Explorer in 1993. ENZA has slashed 3 days, 15 hours, 46 minutes and 15 seconds off that time.Completig the near 12 000 mile journey in 29 days, 16 hours, 1 minute and 45 seconds.

The second record that ENZA is claiming is from teh Cape of Good Hope to Cape Leeuwin. She covered the 4000 miles between the Capes in just 9 days, 22 hours, 8 minutes and 30 seconds.

ENZA has already established three other records so far in her voyage – from Ushant to the equator, from Ushant to the Cape of Good Hope and from the Equator to the Cape of Good Hope.

In the last 24 hours to 1300 GMT today, ENZA covered just 87.9 miles, at an average speed of 3.66 knots.

Skippers Peter Blake and Robin Knox-Johnston were extremely disappointed with their progress and reported, “These conditions are worse than the Doldrums, at least tehre you can go for a swim ! There is nothing we can do except wait for the wind. It’s like being stuck in a frozen parking lot.”

Peter Blake radioed that the conditions were the worst he had encountered rounding the Horn and as bad as anything he had seen in more than 500 000 miles of ocean racing. At the height of the blow, Blake said, “Conditions are very extreme. We are presently under bare poles and getting the drogue, plus all the chain and warp we can find, ready to stream astern if it gets any worse. The boat is handling it very well but we have the occasional breaker sweep right across us.”

ENZA New Zealand was struggling in the so-called Horse Latitudes today.

“The Horse Latitude can be more trouble than the Doldrums”, reported Blake. “They got their name in days gone by when military ships carrying horses got badly bogged down hereabouts ran out of food and had to dump the horses over the side. We’ve got our own water makers on board, so we won’t have to resort to anything as drastic as that. However, some of us must have smelt like our four legged friends before today, when we got our first chance to bathe and shave in nearly 40 days.” Blake was referring to the dramatic improvement in climatic conditions – wind excepted – as ENZAtied the knot, crossing her otward path, in sea water tempreatures that had jumped from 3°C to 22°C in just two days.

“We’ve encircled the globe in 39 days, 5 hours, 51 minutes”, Blake said.