#vg 2024

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GAMES + DLC's PLAYED IN 2024 (for the first time)

2023 2022 2020 2019 2018 2017 + fav games of a decade 2010-2019

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Team Malizia Vendée Globe Livestream, Week 3

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As much as I get into the other events, to me the Vendée Globe really is something else entirely. It just has so many elements that seem like the stuff of myth and ritual, being lived by real people in real time with all of our modern technology. They leave in November with the coming of winter on their quest and return in January and February as heralds of the coming spring. They LITERALLY leave the world of the known and cross set thresholds to the strange Realm Apart, face trials in a strange and dangerous region with a mythic reputation (the most remote part of the Southern Ocean is called “the Hole” because of how far from rescue it is), they confront the mightiest challenge and then head home to the very place they left (the references to the rounding of Cape Horn as La sortie d’enfer, “the exit from hell”). You can almost literally overlay the circular Hero’s Journey chart from English class on the route!

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I know he emphasizes being a Kiwi more and if I was in his situation so would I, but CONRAD COLMAN YOU ARE A DUAL CITIZEN SO I REALLY HOPE YOU SENT IN AN ABSENTEE BALLOT!

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When sport and science join forces

Of the 40 competitors to start the 2024-25 Vendée Globe on November 10, 25 entrants will have scientific equipment onboard during the bigges

Of the 40 competitors to start the 2024-25 Vendée Globe on November 10, 25 entrants will have scientific equipment onboard during the biggest ever solo non-stop round-the-world race. Partnering with the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the equipment will be deployed during the race to advance oceanographic research and weather forecasting models.

These skippers will enable the collection and distribution of essential data to scientists in real time looking to expand global knowledge of climate and the ocean, seeking to improve operational weather forecasting services, particularly in the less frequented southern latitudes of the globe.

Several types of instruments are being utilized such as surface buoys, weather stations, autonomous Argo subsurface profiling floats, educational buoys (Calitoo), and thermosalinographs. The data collected during and after the race, as well as the buoys deployed, will feed the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) which is coordinated by UNESCO. 

“It is a real achievement to see so many sailors involved in this collaborative project that the IMOCA Class has been proudly carrying out since 2018,” said Claire VAYER, co-responsible for sustainability, IMOCA Class. “After nearly five years of work with all the scientific partners, it is gratifying and encouraging to see how essential the contribution of sailors is to science today.

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Pip Hare: A Catastrophic Mast Collapse, 800 Miles from Land & All Alone

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Justine Mettraux shows us how she washes her long hair aboard an IMOCA

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And after the breakaway…. the comeback. As is very often the case in the Southern Ocean, big breakaways caused by one weather system are rar

And after the breakaway…. the comeback. As is very often the case in the Southern Ocean, big breakaways caused by one weather system are rarely maintained on the Vendée Globe and today the tables have turned a little more in the favour of those immediately behind the top two skippers, leader Charlie Dalin (MACIF Santé Prévoyance) and Seb Simon (Groupe Dubreuil).

Whilst Dalin – who crossed the longitude of Cape Leeuwin this afternoon – has been slowed to around 12-15kts at times today, Yoann Richomme (PAPREC ARKÉA) and Thomas Ruyant (VULNERABLE) – have been the fastest in the fleet and in the last 36 hours have seen their deficit to Dalin reduced by some 200 miles to a much more tenable 330 nautical miles this afternoon. 

The race leader crossed the longitude of Cape Leeuwin at 14:12:58hrs UTC, after 29d 02h 10min 58s of racing, thereby just missing out on Armel Le Cléac'h’s 2016 record of 28d 20h 12m. Cape Leeuwin, the second of the course’s three great Capes was named on December 7th 1801 after the Dutch ship Leeuwin (The Lioness) which sailed round Australia, rounding the Cape in March 1622. 

But there is little respite in the big south, there are slender high pressure ridges of lighter airs but it seems the lows are relentless. "In theory, I was told that there were ridges to pass between each depression. I find that they are really short, really!"