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OceanPlanet News Archives - Vendee Globe
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| Over the past several years, I have stubbornly struggled to achieve the impossible fantasy of finishing the legendary Vendee Globe race. During this time, I had heard several times that the reception the finishers receive in Les Sables is really something... |
| Bruce Schwab sailed across the finish line in Les Sables d'Olonne, France just after 08:00 GMT on the morning of Friday, February 25... |
| Ok, so I spoke too soon yesterday... one more night! The notorious Bay of Biscay, after dishing out an intial beating, today was a sunny mill pond with little to no wind... |
| This COULD be my last night at sea during the Vendee Globe race. My ETA changes every five minutes with the shifting, capricious winds, but we only have about 165 miles to go... |
| Well, 309 to be exact. We are right off the northwest tip of Spain, just past Cape Finisterre... |
| In sailor's terms, there is... |
| This is horrible sailing. The wind is from the worst direction, and the pounding makes it impossible to go a decent speed... |
| In case you missed it, we have made a little sojourn to the east around a small depression that wandered off the African coast... |
| Throughout this crazy race, I have received countless fantastic emails of support from the United States and all over the world... |
| It is easy to tell what general direction Les Sables is from here. Just face straight into the wind and waves, and that's where it is. Well, most of the time... |
| I would like to take this chance to invite other sponsors to come aboard... |
| Although we may be 'parking' in the doldrums soon (or at least slowing down), for the moment it is ROCKIN' on board Ocean Planet in great sailing conditions... |
| I have special flashlights on board made by American inventor and Ocean Planet supporter Don "McGizmo" McLeish... |
| At last the wind is clocking to the east from the north easterlies that we have generally had for days now. This means we can ease the sheets just a few inches and pick up some speed... |
| The rough and tumble of the Vendee Globe is squarely behind Bruce as he sails up the Atlantic towards France and the finish... |
| As I look at Ocean Planet's track around the world, I see that we are not that far west from our course down the Atlantic over two months ago. This is a psychological milestone for me as I realize that we have in fact already sailed around the world nonstop... |
| Not a bad start to today. Sunny, with a pleasant breeze and a few nice patchy clouds. We avoided getting stuck in the approaching high and kept moving through the night... |
| What a bummer for Skandia skipper, Nick Moloney. Yesterday the keel blade of his boat keel broke off about 30 cm from the bottom of the hull... |
| On the road again? It seemed like it yesterday with a great day of sailing in the sun... |
| Aaaarrrggghhh! The conditions in this area of the South Atlantic have been as frustrating as the entire Southern Ocean... |
| After rounding Cape Horn, there is the tough tactical call of going east or west of Isla de Estados... |
| Today we rounded Cape Horn and this is my second time here. The first time was during the '02/'03 Around Alone race.... |
| The last few days of running towards Cape Horn have been among the very best of the trip so far. There was plenty of wind, and we were able to "select" how much we wanted by careful positioning with a big weather pattern as it went by... |
| With only a few more days to go before rounding Cape Horn, it looks as if we will get one more good pasting as a parting gift from the Southern Pacific... |
| Today was mostly beautiful sailing, but the day's excitement was provided by the discovery of about 12 gallons (50 liters) of water in the bow compartment... |
| What a grind the past few days have been. After giving away a bunch of miles to effect repairs, including working on our squeaky keel, we were pretty much stuck in a northerly position with a storm approaching... |
| Just yesterday we were surfing along downwind in moderate breeze, but that already seems like ages ago. |
| Just what we needed, more stuff to fix. |
| Despite my tendencies to hedge to the north, we are now at 52 degrees south. Just a day or so ago Conrad on Hellomoto reported an iceberg "the size of Wembley Stadium" at 51 32S, 178 59E... |
| It looks like I will only get about a half hour of Tuesday before it is Monday morning again. How is this possible? Because I am crossing the International Date Line as I am writing this... |
| It is late Thursday night here on the south edge of the Tasman Sea. Only about an hour ago I finished an interview with the Vendee media center in Paris and had a good chat... |
| It has been a week of Russian Roulette for the Vendee Globe skippers as they pick their way through an ocean strewn with icebergs. |
| Today things are going pretty well on the good ship Ocean Planet... |
| As we ply the sea on our fragile boats in the rough ocean, lately I am aware of how fragile my spirits can be... |
| I have always fantasized about being a trapeze artist in the circus. But after today's exercises, I'm definitely feeling a little too old and beat up for it... |
| After a lot of agonizing, I have decided to head north to fix the radar... |
| After more than 3 years, 1-1/2 times around the world, 4 transatlantic crossings without any problems at all, the mounting for our radar dome has a serious issue... |
| Well, that could have been a lot worse. After a bit of buffeting, sloshing and nasty wind, we made it through the center of the depression that rolled over us from the northwest |
| Although I hoped today's weather files would say otherwise, an intense low pressure trough is bearing down on us with no escape route to the north or south... |
| My northerly excursion is looking like a bigger blunder every minute. In hindsight I should have jibed behind the ridge and taken our knocks in the hole, given what little wind and lousy heading we've had... |
| The Southern Ocean has been dishing up its usual dose of balmy summer sailing conditions; snow, ice, gale force winds and treacherous seas... |
| Turns out that the ridge of high pressure that we had been anticipating for several days, slowed or stalled enough for Patrice and Joe to stay in front of it on starboard jibe... |
| As the albatrosses and other birds that accompany Ocean Planet can attest to, we have been sailing very conservatively over the weekend... |
| I hope so. It was a rather slow night and morning as I really kept the sail power low. With my quickie repair on the rudder boot yesterday, I didn't want to stress it... |
| It's been a busy day (do I say that a lot?) here on our southern ocean surfboard. The small high pressure zone rolled over us late last night and this morning giving us several hours of light air... |
| It has been a tumultuous week for the Vendee fleet as the first rip snort from the Southern Ocean forced two competitors to withdraw from the race, with two more hanging by a thread... |
| Well, a few days ago we were pummelled by the nastiest storm I can remember, and we just spent most of last night stuck in a "Bozo Zone" of no wind... |
| The last three days have been pretty horrible. The low pressure system I had jibed south to supposedly get away from decided to backtrack somewhat and eat us alive... |
| After getting settled in after yesterday's jibe to starboard, we were driving along reasonably hard in spite of the awkward and confused seas... |
| Last night I hunkered down early for the approaching big blow. Perhaps too early as I lost ground on the next sched to the boats in our group... |
| Today is very tricky sailing. We are on the edge of a receding high (to the northeast), a weak ridge (to the south), and an approaching nasty low from the west... |
| Today is very tricky sailing. We are on the edge of a receding high (to the northeast), a weak ridge (to the south), and an approaching nasty low from the west... |
| Over the past few days we have had some great sailing, first by easing off to go around a forming high pressure zone, then skirting along the edge carefully watching the barometer, grib files, and clouds... |
| The past few days since the doldrums have been ok sailing-wise, but pretty hard from the competitive standpoint... |
| Racing sailboats around the world is a bit like playing chess; only the board is a lot bigger. |
| The infamous Doldrums are a couple of days behind us now, but the experience is still fresh in my mind. The large, angry thunderstorms, torrential downpours, and the humidity are easy to remember... |
| We see life everywhere on Earth. I have been lucky to see huge redwood trees, rich rain forests, and clouds of birds and insects that we regularly find on land... |
| Today we crossed the equator into the southern hemisphere. There will still be a lot of sailing before we cross back, that's for sure... |
| Well, after going on about how great the sailing was in my last update....well, the fun part is over with... |
| Author Brian Hancock Writes Weekly Race Report Featuring Bruce: Available Exclusively on www.bruceschwab.com. |
| In conditions like we have had lately, no matter what goes wrong or what can break, there is NO COMPLAINING allowed on board Ocean Planet!... |
| As part of the Ocean Planet/Bigelow Laboratories Ocean Sciences program, the smart folks at Bigelow have created a weath of information on ocean currents... |
| The past couple of days have been really grueling. Not from the sailing conditions, which have been beautiful, but rather from a pile of work I've been doing to try to get the boat dialed in... |
| Bruce is on his way around the world hurtling down the coast of Africa at a record setting pace. He's on a grand adventure... |
| It has been very exciting sailing these past couple of days with rollicking downwind conditions. Although the boat is capable of going a good bit faster, I have been holding back for several reasons... |
| Yikes, what a night. Sailing to the north of Cape Finisterre, the wind lifted enough to put up our new heavy spinnaker... |
| Off we go! I can hardly believe it myself, but yesterday I started the 2004/2005 Vendee Globe. The scene in Les Sables d'Olonne and out on the water at the start was indescribable... |
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