No, not me getting wet, writing to you from chilly Edmonton in Canada, but doing much vicarious sailing as I follow along with the skippers of the Vendée Globe – around the world, unassisted, no land stops single-handed sailing race.
This race is held every four years and my second time becoming a complete groupie. This event is amazing and a homage to the human spirit. These 40 brave sailors set off on November 10 -2024 from Les Sables d’Olonne on the Atlantic coast in northwest France. There are now 35 sailors still racing, the 5 sailors who withdrew were for serious equipment problems: like Pip Hare who lost her mast and sailed 800 nautical miles to Melbourne Australia with a little handkerchief of a make-do sail. And now Yannick Bestavan (who won in 2020) with his broken navigation system and other woes, finding his way up the Beagle Channel to the port of Ushuaïa in Argentina. Here to get repairs to see if he can`t at least sail the rest of the route back to France, even though he is out of the race.
This is all such a geography lesson for me. Amazing the depth of my northern hemisphere bubble ignorance about what all those southern and eastern oceans are called….I thought when you came around the corner of South Africa you were in the Pacific. I happily just skipped over the Indian Ocean. Really, Julia, you have to go past Australia before you get to the Pacific. Oops.
These sailors take a southern route, skirting along the Antarctic Ice Exclusion Zone, set up to keep them clear of icebergs. They hug the line as this is the shortest route to Cape Horn. So, all of a sudden, the Pacific was a bit shorter than I expected.
And Point Nemo – do you know about it? It is a point in the middle of the Pacific that is the farthest point from land. In fact, the astronauts and cosmonauts on the International Space Station are their closest humans from there.
The leading sailors have rounded Cape Horn, the mystical and stormy Cape Horn. Except when the leaders went around it, in daylight, it was relatively calm and there is a wonderful video of them with the ocean and the rocky coastline. Such an adventure to see this. And the lighthouse keeper. He is an officer with the Chilean Navy living there with his wife, two children and the cat. It is 2 year tenure and he is delighted to be there during a Vendée Globe and he keeps in touch with race HQ.
These boats zoom along – all under sail. A new record was set this time with 613 nautical miles over 24 hours, that is 1,135 km. That is of course with maximum favorable conditions. It is all about catching the winds in the low-pressure zones. But even in light conditions, these yachts are fast and sleek.
Now, the leading yachts are heading towards the coast of Brazil with the rest of the Atlantic to go back to the starting point in France. The fleet is stretched out. The last boat is approaching Tasmania (Dec 31-2024) 7,563 nautical miles from the leader, that is 14,136 km.
To qualify for, participate in, and maybe complete this race is a unique and awe-inspiring achievement. I am humbled and fascinated.