One of the things I’ve been following over the past few months has been the Vendee Globe around the world single handed yacht race.
30 sailors started and the first 3 are now back in. They’re not quite beating Jules Verne’s time of 80 days, the winner Michel Desjoyeaux achieved a record time of 84 days, 3 hours, 9 minutes travelling a total of 28303.2 nautical miles.
Valentines day yesterday was special in particular for one of the people involved in this race – our girl Sam Davies finished at 41 minutes past midnight on the 14th. Sam’s been the sailor I’ve been most interested in seeing info from over the past 3 months of the race, there’s always heaps of personality bursting through the news coming from the pink Roxy boat. Lots of grins, laughs and inspiration from how Sam’s tackled the special challenges of this race.
Not quite sure if Sam will get a 3rd place, as there’s still a little bit of time left for Marc Guillemot to maybe sneak in ahead. When Yann Eliès broke his leg on Generali in the Southern Ocean, Sam Davies and Marc Guillemot both received some credit time for going to the aid of the stricken sailor. Sam got 50 hours less credit (went less out of the way), so there’s still chance for Marc Guillemot to finish ahead.
It’s been an eventful race, with a lot of the boats suffering dismasting and other critical damage. Three boats lost their keels (the heavy thing sticking out the bottom that balances the mast to keep them upright). One of those capsized, with the rescue leading to another boat retiring due to losing its mast. The second retired at the Azores (so close to finishing!) The third boat to lose its keel is Marc Guillemot’s Safran and it’s a huge credit to his skill as a sailor that he’s been able to nurse his boat home with that loss of stability.
The other Brit skippers are coming in hard too – Dee Caffari’s had a tough race as well, as she’s had to take great care with the mainsail on her boat.
I’m going to miss keeping up with the Vendee Globe, looking forward to the next one coming around in 4 years so I can follow the adventures of my (second? 😉 favourite British sailor 🙂
Here’s a link to the page where you can read more about this great race.
Currently watching the West Indies vs England Test Match coming from the old Antigua Recreation Ground. The original 2nd Test got cancelled due to the ground not being up to the job. They moved it to the old international ground in Antigua and it’s looking like a good decision so far. Even with an almost total lack of prepartion, it’s looking like a very good pitch. England are batting and doing extremely well, looking to put a huge total on the board. There’s been a few signs of the pitch misbehaving so far (odd balls keeping low) but it’s promising to be a decent game.