With Lake Michigan not looking too sailable we look to the Southern Hemisphere.

Concisely…..

The Global Challenge is heading west from Cape Horn and beginning to arrive in Wellington NZL.

Ellen Macarthur on the trimaran B&Q heading for Cape Horn on her solo record breaking attempt

The Vendee Globe fleet of lone sailors spread out over 5,000 miles with the leader having rounded Cape Horn.

Specifics

Leg 2 for the Global Challenge fleet of pay to play sailors stretching from Argentina to New Zealand has been notable for 2 boats having to cease racing due to medical issues.

Near Cape Horn Team Stelmar had a crew suffer an arm injury. They proceeded to Chile to offload the injured crew.

Later as the fleet neared New Zealand a crew from Imagine It. Done. took ill. Eventually the boat got near enough Islands outlying New Zealand for an emergency medical medivac to be performed.

Sailing solo Ellen Macarthur has cleared the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Leeuwin. She is now on her way to Cape Horn over 3 days ahead of Francis Joyon’s remarkable record pace.

She’s made as much as 485 miles in 24 hours, but recently has faced winds greatly varying in velocity and direction.

The Southern Ocean is usually seen as a place of epic sleigh rides powered by strong steady winds. Maybe so, but the recent variables have nearly put paid to the experienced, tough Ellen “I have never been this bad. I’m totally exhausted.”

The lead trio of lone sailors contesting the Vendee Globe have rounded Cape Horn. Mike Golding sailing Ecover set the fastest Southern Ocean time in the Vendee Globe between the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn of 31 days 9 hours. To gain this record he had to go through scenarios such as “I made a small alteration on the pilot to bring the boat up 2 degrees, and the pilot rather overreacted, and promptly let go of the helm. So in my mid-layer with just a light fleece on, I ended up helming the boat down some monstrous waves, until I could get the pilot going again. And that happened twice.”

Does that mean he enjoyed it? “You spend four years wanting to get down here and after two weeks of it you spend the rest of the time wanting to get out of it. That is the sum of it.”

Sailing the south is as difficult as it looks, then.

Southern Ocean Golding

What is the Southern Ocean? Officially the body of water between 60 degrees south latitude and Antarctica. Sailors take a more generous view defining the South as starting at 40 degrees south.

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