Calm before the (next) storm

Jean-Luc van den Heede licks his wounds

"It's a rough road,"commented Jean-Luc van den Heede (VDH) who sailing westwards across the bottom of the Pacific Ocean has experienced his first two big Southern Ocean depressions of this voyage.

With more than six days’ lead over Philippe Monnet’s record for the solo westabout circumnavigation VDH is easing off as much as possible. Today, he is taking advantage of the calm weather before the next storm arrives.

Sunday was him sailing into 45 knot winds from the west northwest in very heavy seas, bringing backmemories of his previous attempts (this is his fourth attempt and on two of these he came acropper in this section of water). "I’ve had a tough old night on board Adrien. Another depression, deeper than the first, went right over me on Sunday night with some violent winds (40-45 knots), but above all some very heavy seas. As a result, I’ve headed a little further north."

And there is still a long, long way to go. After a 32 day passage down the Atlantic he now has around 60-70 more sailing the wrong direction across the Southern Ocean with depression after depression heading his way.

"Try as I might, there’s no stopping Adrien slamming down, when the sea is heavy ...not unless I turn around and head home!," he says. "The days go by and one day is never like the other. Yesterday, I was tired after the storm during the night, while today, I’ve had a good rest in the quiet weather. But this is just the transitionary period before the next storm arrives.... " The next storm looks set to arrive on Thursday.

Meanwhile the tall bearded former maths teacher from Amiens has been setting himself some targets. "I worked out that if I make 5 degrees to the west every day, I’ll reach the antemeridian on New Year’s Day. In that direction, as I will lose a day because of the time difference. it would be quite something to miss New Year’s Day. I’m going to have to hurry up!"