No rendez-vous

Conditions ease for Jean-Luc van den Heede

Day 53 Position 1300: 54°36 S / 169°43 W
Wind 15 knots from WSW, Sea: slight.
Temperatures: day 13° / night 6° / sea 5°
Distance covered in the last 24 h: 196 miles.
To the antipodal meridian 357 miles. Lead over Monnet 13 days and 15 h.

Hello

We're not going to be able to see each other, Francis Joyon and myself. In order to avoid some unfavourable winds, he headed up north and with the WSW that I've had since the end of yesterday's gale, I didn't have any other choice but to head 250°, which means I'll be at a much more southerly latitude than he is. We'll be thinking of each other, and as Francis said, we'll have to celebrate the New Year together some other time!

We got out of yesterday's severe gale without any damage. The only reminder of what happened is another little hole in the mainsail. But as there is a Kevlar mesh, these little holes don't spread.

Since my message yesterday, as the sea and the wind calmed down, I put back up the staysail, shook out the third reef, replaced the staysail with the solent, shook out the second reef, then the first, then changed the solent for the genoa! As each manoeuvre took around a quarter of an hour, you can see I haven't had time to get bored, especially as every time I have to put on the waterproofs and boots, then stow away the halyards and sheets. Since then it's been rather relaxing!

See you tomorrow for the final day of the year,

JL VDH

A day with Christiane JOANNES' green cuddly toy: Lazy Frog