La petite Anglaise 29 January 2001 Ellen MacArthur is leading the Vendée Globe…


10 January 2001 at 19h 07m Michel Desjoyeaux rounds Cape Horn. Having left Les Sables d’Olonne 72 days earlier, the famous skipper of the white Finot- Conq design PRB occupies the head of the round-the-world fleet, with a comfortable advance on his nearest rival who is the 24- year-old and very valiant Ellen MacArthur onboard her nice-looking Owen-Clarke and Rob Humphreys-designed Kingfisher. As he leaves the Pacific Ocean Michel is


48 SEAHORSE


602nm in front of ‘La petite Anglaise’, as she is called by the enthusiastic sailing community, 100 per cent charmed by the extraordinary young British female skipper. Two days later when the yellow Kingfisher enters the Atlantic the gap is increased to 642nm.


Now almost everyone watching the race thinks the same thing: ‘La messe est dite’. The French expression summing up how, with such a lead, Michel and PRB cannot


be caught during the long leg northwards up the Atlantic. However, the following days were going to write a different story. 16 January PRB’s speed begins to fall. The first alarm is an enormous high pressure which lies between the two continents. The second alarm is about a material failure: Michel’s mast track breaks at the first reef point in the main. After seven hours spent up the mast, Michel succeeds in carrying out a temporary repair.


ELLEN MACARTHUR/DPPI


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