Thomas Siniecki, Media365: published on Tuesday December 3, 2024 at 6:25 p.m.
As a reminder, we exceed 110 km/h at a speed of 60 knots. The size of the waves formed is even more impressive.
By dint of looking for the strongest winds, which follows a certain logic when you want to move forward as quickly as possible, the competitors in the Vendée Globe can end up giving themselves some serious scares. It's too late for the leaders, who can no longer escape a violent depression announcing peaks of 60 knots in the next two days. Which will bring them very quickly to the level of the Kerguelen Islands, approximately halfway between South Africa and Australia – therefore the Capes of Good Hope and Leeuwin -, but as far north as possible since it is where the conditions will be the least stormy.
Simon has “already taken 67 knots, it’s not pleasant at all”
Sébastien Simon, one of the leaders (Dubreuil Group), confirms that “there is not much of a solution”: “The road stops abruptly. We will just have to be very careful and careful with the boat, let the the worst of the storm, hoping that we get through it safely and that everything goes well.” But obviously, he's “a little apprehensive”: “We're going to tighten our butts for 48 hours. I've already taken 67 knots during the Ocean Race in 2023. I know it's not pleasant at all, but it's there is no escape. It won't be easy for anyone, we will suffer.”
When we talk about 60 knots, that also equals ten meters of swell. If we manage to reduce it to 45 knots, we're more like six meters… Anyway, we'll let you imagine the picture and it's better that it's not the Raft of the Medusa. And even for those who are a little behind, another depression of roughly the same ilk “adds an element of uncertainty and anxiety” as Benjamin Ferré puts it: “It will already be quite a bit, and then the second to from Friday noon… I go into South Sea mode, survival, safe.” You will have understood, it will even be a double dose, therefore, for those who are further behind. “If you find yourself trapped, it raises an obviously nice sea and things that I don't necessarily want to go into,” exclaims Nicolas Lunven further up front. For those who may regret the lack of adventure in a Vendée Globe that has become too technological for their taste, it is indeed the hour of pirates that is coming, the old-fashioned way and alone in the face of fear.
