Gitana 13

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Gitana 13 Yokohama Japan to Dalian - Blog

Posted May 12th, 2008 by Nicolas Raynaud

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Boating Blog

After a stopover in Japan for almost a month, to within one night, we’re going to ‘miss’ our first earthquake! Lionel, Zolive and the two ‘newcomers' aboard, namely Jean-Baptiste Levaillant and Antoine Mermod, wondered which position it was best to adopt whilst their bed, situated on the thirteenth floor of our hotel, began to shake at around two in the morning. Level 3 on the Richter Scale according to a sober announcement on the CNN news. As regards the rest of the crew, including your humble servant, the sandman had us in his grip… to their deep regret!

It is with the taste of this anecdote in our mouths, which simply left a smile on the faces of the Japanese who came to see us off, we cast off under a half-fig, half-grape coloured sky. The introduction involved a string of manœuvres in order to extract ourselves from Tokyo Bay. A fine 'lull' invited itself to the start line, but fortunately business soon got back to normal. And so with night already upon us here, we’re making between 22 and 25 knots under solent and full mainsail. Japanese soil, just a handful of miles off, is providing us with a perfectly sheltered race zone.

Tonight and over the coming days, we'll be revising the navigation rules and the different light configurations. The shipping promises to be intense, and indeed it has already been so since our departure. There are just eight of us aboard, that is two watches of three hours. Suffice to say that between here and Dalian, we’re going to have very little time to get bored.

09/05/2008 - 15:21 - Business as usual

30 knots on the anemometer! The results of our first day may be deemed as satisfactory despite the overly numerous periods of calm overnight. Other than that, there's nothing to say; it’s all been positive. The skies are a grey blue, there is a gentle breeze, we have downwind conditions, and it's been so good that there hasn't really been any serious spray on deck. Foulies are still optional but naturally that won't last…

This introduction enabled us to review the gybing, the reef taking, and we've even reviewed our favourite sequence of moves, namely the change of gennaker, the little one replacing the large one, with a gybe to follow if you please, culminating with a little session of ballast shifting. With a crew of eight, we have a fair bit of work to do and so we sleep when we can. With our new organisation, that is two watches of four, it is compulsory to go and wake our ‘little friends’ at the slightest manœuvre. Unless we’re in very light conditions, nothing is possible aboard Gitana 13 unless there are six or seven of us on deck. So with 30 knots of wind…

Tomorrow, we're going to revise the hoisting of the ORC which is our little headsail. Of course we're going to have the right to a storm. Between Japan and South Korea, the NE’ly wind is set to gust to up to 50 knots. The foulies will then be more than compulsory…

10/05/2008 - 16:06 - Tonnes of water on deck

Sunset at the foot of the island of Cheju, between Japan and South Korea comes as a reward after 24 hours in conditions we can best describe as bracing, wet and at times harsh. 57 knots of wind, seas breaking on the beam, on deck you just have to hold on firmly even though Gitana 13 has never been lacking. Under 3 reefs alone, ORC wisely stowed away in its bag, we are nevertheless powering along at over 20/25 knots, the full weight of the waves dumping onto us.

The strongest of the wind is now behind us though and whilst we completed only our second day at sea this afternoon, there is now a third of the journey left to go. There promises to be numerous manœuvres for the end of this stage. Despite the few hours of sleep, the atmosphere aboard is more than excellent, each person knowing all to well that this type of journey isn't something they do everyday. And though the seas this afternoon could be compared to the Mediterranean in a strong mistral, the simple crossing with a fifteen metre long fishing boat, under drogue to remain end onto the wave, was sufficient to remind us that we are making headway in a universe that is totally unknown to us. For the sailors that we are at heart, this really is an absolute must.

11/05/2008 - 21:03 - Gliding along in the Yellow Sea

A complete turnabout. After yesterday's storm, the night was dedicated to traversing a ridge of high pressure as best we could. It wasn’t until the early hours, downwind of a little South Korean island, that the ridge deigned to push us towards the goal as it should. The large gennaker in position, this kind SSW‘ly breeze is enabling us to glide across the Yellow Sea, which is as smooth as a millpond. A real joy.

This Sunday was therefore dedicated to drying out as the sun and blue skies were part of the proceedings, as well as some much needed recuperation; everyone's sleep ration being largely in the red. The wake-up calls were difficult as a result because, for the first time since the start, we were in a 'real deep sleep', and no longer between 'two worlds', as you don’t have the worry of getting ejected from your bunks anymore.

This sail in the Yellow Sea is a big first for the eight of us and we’ve observed that it requires as much, if not more attention, than navigating along the Breton coast. We have spent our day passing fishing boats displaying Chinese flags, where you could clearly hear the sound of a diesel engine of a certain age whose age is far from certain! It was also necessary to slalom between the lines of fishing nets measuring several hundred metres in length, barely visible on the surface of the water, and marked out in what appeared to us to be a rather random manner. The result of that is that we passed over one of them, as easy as pie, which was fortunate for both ourselves and the net.

Whilst Qingdao, our next stopover after Dalian, is 140 miles abeam of us, we look set to reach the 4th largest city in China in the early hours of Monday morning. The objective we’d set ourselves for this Yokohama/Dalian record, namely to pass under the four day barrier, is therefore on the point of being reached. As usual Gitana 13 is preparing to reach the finish without the slightest damage, just like the crew itself it has to be said!

See you soon,

Nicolas Raynaud

UPDATE FROM THE GITANA 13 TEAM:
New reference time between Yokohama and Dalian for Gitana 13

At 02h14’56’’ UT this morning, Lionel Lemonchois and his seven crew crossed the finish line of the Yokohama – Dalian record. In so doing Gitana 13 and her men have established a new reference time by making the Chinese port in 3 days 20 hours 19 minutes and 11 seconds. Ellen MacArthur’s reference time in 2006 (7 days 3 hours 8 minutes) has thus been improved upon by 3 days.

Yokohama – Dalian: 1,215 miles dotted with hazards

This 1,215 mile course has been highly varied in terms of the weather. Setting out from Yokohama on Thursday 8th May at 05h55’45’’ UT, the maxi-catamaran in the colours of LCF Rothschild Group had a gentle start to the record, with the initial miles sailed at a fairly reduced pace in order to extract themselves from Tokyo Bay. However, Lionel Lemonchois and his seven crew quickly hit more air, enabling them to lengthen their stride. Over the course of Friday night, during the passage of the Osumi straits at the SW tip of Japan, the sailors of Gitana Team experienced their usual ‘allotted gale’ for this particular record. Indeed the anemometer climbed as high as 57 knots, whilst the catamaran was on a reach. However, a few miles further down the track, during Gitana 13’s slog along the coast of Southern Korean, it was a zone of high pressure that the eight sailors had to negotiate this time round. “We experienced several radical changes in weather; we set off in calm conditions and sunshine, then very quickly after that we hit some air and then a gale for a 24 hour period. Gitana 13 was then sailing with just three reefs in the mainsail; the big swell producing quite a spectacle" confided Léopold Lucet

On his arrival on shore, the skipper of Gitana 13 looked back at the last few miles of their journey in the Yellow Sea: “Our third and final night at sea was fairly complicated… We had to slalom our way between the fishing boats, the cargo ships and the drifting fishing nets, the whole thing coloured by virtually no visibility. We weren’t unhappy to get safely into port! Our course and this arrival in China has all been a really enjoyable change of scene! We’re really very privileged to be able to come and sail in this part of the globe, as few boats have this opportunity. We’re well aware of our good fortune aboard Gitana 13.”

Gitana 13 will spend a few days in Dalian prior to taking to the high seas again, bound for Qingdao, a city which will play host to the sailing events in the Beijing Olympic Games this coming August.

The crew of Gitana 13 between Yokohama and Dalian: