Heart failure

Jean-Luc van den Heede suffers a shock

Day 98. Position at 1300: 17°52'S/1°32'E
Wind: 15 knots from SE. Slight sea.
Temperatures: day 22°C/ night 17°C/ sea 22°C
Distance covered in the last 24 hours: 194 miles.
To the finish: 5,115 miles.
Lead over Monnet: 26 days and 4 hours.

Hi there,

Had a bit of a shock this morning. Even if it only lasted for a tenth of a second, it was already too long for me! As I was leaning over the bow this morning, I saw part of my hull peeling off...Of course, I immediately realised that that was just impossible.

Aluminium, whether it's Pechiney or Alcan doesn't peel off in strips! But during that brief moment, I was looking at Helvim's hull during the Vendée Globe 92, then Algimouss's, which peeled off in strips in Chile in 99.

In reality, the strips I was looking at were the sticker on Adrien's starboard bow. Prawns, langoustines and turbot, which symbolise the main activities of the Adrien Group, were being ripped off with the slap of each wave. Maybe they had been attacked during the night by a fish, who had thought they were real, when he should have been attracted by my bait, which is still trailing along behind Adrien without any success!

Last night, she wasn't going very fast either, but the wind got back up a bit this morning and we're now making better headway. Luckily, the current for once is helping us in this area, as otherwise our daily average wouldn't be that good. The trade winds are hardly blowing at all!

See you on Sunday,

JL VDH

A day with the cuddly toy from the Bateaux Nantais stowed on board Adrien by Idée d'image.