Vendée Globe - Damien Seguin 'I'm following my own routing'

"The NW'ly wind is dropping steadily: it is beginning to drop below twenty knots. I'm a bit surprised to see Apivia heading back up north because he was on the same level as me before... Personally, I'm following my own routing and I have the impression that Jean (Le Cam) is doing something similar to me.

There is good reason to be satisfied with what I am doing. All the same, I’m keeping track of competitors and the routes they are taking, in order to know their average speeds and bearings, and that allows me to cross-check this data with my own analyses. The last 36 hours have been quite hard to sail in, with very rough seas and a lot of wind. But I've managed to get out of my predicament: I've sailed cleanly, and was able to put in a series of gybes in thirty knots of wind. I'm delighted to be third! I’m due to pass Cape Horn on Sunday morning! For the moment, it looks pretty complicated with the low pressure system coming in from the north, but there are still around 1,500 miles to go and varied conditions to contend with before I get there. But I am holding out hope that I’ll pass Cape Horn for the first time with not too much of a fight…

Theoretically, Yannick (Bestaven) should be more exposed than us to the strong winds when he passes Cape Horn. But we do have to be prepared for this bottleneck of wind and current that is expected. I can’t let it turn into a bad experience. I had been told that the Pacific was mostly just full of very heavy swell, but for the moment I haven’t had any of that! Today is looking pretty good: in fact for us, night is coming.  And we're advancing straight towards Cape Horn, with no gale in sight today. And I do have a small gap ahead of my competitors, Jean (Le Cam) and Benjamin (Dutreux).

I still have a few things to do on the boat because we've been on the water for a long time! The nights are short here and it's mostly dark, but it's difficult to get into a rhythm as we're still heading east. But right now, the weather is still pretty nice.”

Damien Seguin / APICIL Group

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Cover photo © Damien Seguin / Groupe APICIL