For the first time since 2008, sailors in the Vendée Globe around-the-world solo sailboat race on Jan. 2 encountered an iceberg in the middle of the Pacific ocean. For many days leading up to the start of the new year, sailors had been informed by race management that they were in an ice zone in the Pacific. Two icebergs were spotted by satellite outside the Antarctic Exclusion Zone and their position put them closer to the course the sailors in the race were on.
“My radar alarm went off: I had an echo four miles ahead,” Sébastien Marsset, skipper of Foussier, told race management. “There it was all hands on deck because I was at 17 knots under small gennaker. I had to roll to avoid the iceberg. I bore away, which temporarily made me aim it even more.” He tried to luff, but couldn’t accelerate and because the iceberg was not drifting north but instead east. “I was at the same latitude as it, and I found myself . . . facing it,” he wrote.
A little farther north, Guirec Soudée at the helm of Freelance.com had to slow his pace from 18 to 20 knots. “I said hophophophop. I’ve already hit ice at 4 to 5 knots with a steel boat,” he wrote. “It wasn’t very pleasant, so with a carbon boat I prefer not to think about it. It spices up the race a bit, but it’s still a bit stressful, I’m on my radar every 20 minutes I go outside, we can see the horizon.”
The competitors benefitted from having good visibility throughout the day. New Zealand-based skipper Conrad Colman aboard MS Amlin saw the sun starting to set. Just before dusk, a large silhouette stood out on the horizon, close enough that Colman launch a drone to film it.
For those keeping score, Charlie Dalin aboard MACIF Santé Prévoyance held the race lead ahead of Yoann Richomme. Sébastien Simon held third in Groupe Dubreuil.
