Towards a reactivation of the "storm line"?

Currently off Cape Finisterre, Boris & Sam are battling winds of 40 to 50 knots and seas reaching up to 9 metres. Their experience and composure are being severely tested, but they are holding strong. The proximity to the finish line is likely giving them extra courage as they aim to complete their round-the-world journey tomorrow.

"Depending on how the weather evolves, we’ll see if we need to reactivate the ‘storm line’ (a mandatory course gate that can be converted into a finish line in severe conditions)," explains Hubert Lemonnier, the race director.

Update from onboard this afternoon : 

“Hi everyone, it's one of the last days of the Vendée Globe… It’s  lunchtime, a mexican dish today, I never had this one before… from New Zealand. Apparently plant based, looks healthy. Let's see if it tastes good in a minute.

Just a quick update:

We are around the corner of Spain, around Cape Finisterre mostly. We are now just on the continental shelf to the northwest where it points out a little bit where the water depth is a little bit less. So offshore it's 4000 or 5000 metres and then here this little shelf sticks out where it's about 400 metres. So I was wondering if it affects the sea state but I can't really tell. The sea state is a bit more chaotic now, but that might also be because of the shifting winds or something. 

In any case, the wind has dropped to below 40, so it's averaging 35 right now of 37. But then when rain squalls come through, I just had one half an hour ago, then the wind was back up to 46. So it is not easy to put really big sails, especially because I want to keep the boat speed not much higher than 20 knots in the surfs and the waves because of the broken foil to not take risk to get that loosened or breaking more or something or break the ropes that hold it. That would be pretty dangerous so I had some surfs at above 30 knots last night with pretty crazy conditions. Some waves would hit the boat hard and tip the boat a bit out. Of course the rudder's strolling, but the pilot managed everything by itself and I didn't really have to do much to be honest.”

“I was just holding on a bit tight each time and for the whole night there was no sleep. But the boat does great. It's like swimming like a cork on top of all these swirly waves. And that's probably easier than with a massive cargo vessel in this sea state. So it does really well.  It’s a really sea worthy boat. It's great to see that and to have experienced that. 

That did all the night until just a few hours ago, just with the third reef main. Then I unfurled the storm jib for an hour and now I'm with the J3. Under normal racing conditions with the boat in one piece, we would probably be on the jib top or small gennaker, maybe 2 reefs and struggle a lot with the waves and be super stressed, so I'm a little bit more eased because of my penalty with the foil I can't push the boat so it's rather relaxing. Although I'm in the middle of this strong weather. Traffic is not so easy to monitor with my broken electronics. No radar, AIS is limited range with an antenna in the back. So that's the big worry, of course. But luckily, in the strong conditions, there's not so much traffic. At least not so many fishing boats maybe. 

Yeah. What else? In a couple of hours until the end of daylight. And I will jib and that will be a bit tricky as most of the rest of the trip will be on starboard tack with the broken foil and more in the water on port. I hope that's going to work out fine. We will see. I don't know actually… And that delays our arrival as I cannot sail at normal speed. So we are not so sure if it's tomorrow evening or Thursday morning. OK, good night.”

Back to the winter mood:

Boris got surprised by the weather: “Got only cold now. Until now was quite mild 

Last night, first time with the sleeping bag and jacket came out. It’s surprising how long the warm lasts on the way north back into the winter.”

What’s the plan?

Boris’ current plan is to aim for a finish tomorrow, on the 29th end of the day / night, with a potential window of slightly calmer conditions. The situation remains dynamic, and Boris is closely monitoring the forecasts to adapt as necessary. 

However, if the weather deteriorates, safely crossing the finish line and entering Les Sables d’Olonne could become complicated. Like Benjamin Dutreux and Clarisse Crémer, we might need to head to La Rochelle after the finish to take shelter while waiting for a favorable weather window to navigate the Les Sables d’Olonne channel.

This situation is unprecedented, and we will keep you updated as soon as we have more information. Fingers crossed for a safe arrival!