Yachtpals.com has a running series of posts from Vendée skippers. Here are a few tidbits from the British ones:
We should chat more. Dee Caffari and Brian Thompson both comment on the joy of swapping experiences with nearby skippers. Dee reckons it helps build the British community.
Alex Thomson, no longer physically in the race after Hugo Boss’s disastrous hull damage, gave an analysis of the state of play, based on running several boats’ routing predictions on Hugo Boss’s computer, using her polars. He confirms the view that the backmarkers are likely to catch up so much on the leaders that it may be like starting the race again south of the equator.
Steve White describes watching a ‘racing gannet’ trying to catch flying fish jumping just ahead of Toe in the Water, and reflects on what the UK Health & Safety Executive would have had to say about Eric Newby’s first crossing of the equator in one of the last grain ships. Eric was painted from head to toe with red lead…
Steve also brings us back to earth, commenting on the cost of transmitting video footage back home. His original comms budget was ten thousand pounds, but most of it was diverted to more urgent causes. Makes your broadband fees look trivial, doesn’t it?
