This past week at the Global Solo Challenge was meant to be just one of celebrations with skippers trying their best to enjoy their Christmas at sea. Hidden presents, special treats and phone calls with their loved ones made the festive day feel a little less lonely in the vastness of the Indian and Pacific oceans.
However, this joyous moment was somewhat shadowed by thoughts that went to fellow skipper Ari Känsäkoski who was certainly not having the best time of his life.
On the night between the 21st and 22nd December, on board ZEROchallenge, Ari Känsäkoski was shocked to see that one of the lower diagonal shrouds, the D1, had broken, with the lower pressed head shearing off at the tip-cup, despite an all rigging inspection just before the Global Solo Challenge. Ari immediately lowered all sails hoping to be able to secure the mast at first light and even, perhaps, manage a makeshift Dyneema replacement D1 to allow him to sail on to Australia.
However a squally front was headed his way and despite winds of just around 20 knots the boat under bare poles rolled violently enough to cause the unsupported mast to break in half in the depth of night. Ari was sailing in an area of the Indian Ocean, just north of the Crozet Islands which is affected by a strong flow of the countercurrent of Agulhas which can cause the sea state to be far worse than it would normally be for any given wind strength.
The deck-stepped mast buckled in half breaking just above the first set of spreaders. Fortunately Ari was not injured and there was no damage to the hull. Ari then proceeded to secure the mast against the boat during the night to ensure it could not cause a waterway by hitting the hull in the rolling waves. When daylight came he passed on to assessing the situation and determined that he did not require assistance. He deemed that neither him nor the boat were under immediate danger and that by having preserved all sections of the mast and the boom on the boat he could work on building a jury rig.
MRCC Finland (as the country of the boat’s flag) and MRCC Reunion were informed of the events and have since been in constant contact to monitor the situation with the skipper. As organisers, we have made ourselves available as a bridge for any information that needs to be exchanged between Ari and MRCC and or any other party that may become involved in the difficult task of making sure Ari can safely reach a port.
At the time of the accident Ari was more than 1000 nautical miles south of Madagascar, 1600 miles from Cape Town and over 3000 miles from Western Australia. The Crozet Islands were around 300 miles to his south but after discussion with MRCC reunion Ari opted not to head south as the main island, l’Île de la Possession, offers little more than a bay for anchorage. Ari did not require medical assistance and reaching the island would not have improved his situation much and would have forced him to sail further away from Africa.
The immediate problem for Ari was to raise and secure the section of the mast hanging off the side of the boat which became submerged at every roll making it impossible for Ari to consider motoring, especially given the sea state. Using a spinnaker whisker pole he managed to winch up and secure the mast onto the boat and start his engine.
The Agulhas countercurrent however caused more than just some confused seas, it was flowing at over three knots from the North West, exactly where Ari wanted to go. Ari therefore set course at 90 degrees to the current and took over 2 days to cross what in fact is a 50 miles wide river of hot water running against him in the middle of nowhere.
By Christmas eve Ari had gotten through the worst of the countercurrent and had managed to hoist a small sail onto his whisker pole whilst considering options for hoisting further canvas. By boxing day Ari was out of the countercurrent and had reached a favourable eddy to the north but was preparing for the passage of a depression which due to bring him up to 30 knots of wind from the north. However, by the evening of the 27th both the warm and cold fronts should go through bringing southwesterly and even southerly winds to hep Ari make way to the north.
Ari will have to try not to lose any ground in the northerly winds between the 26th and 27th, especially making sure he is not blown back in the Agulhas countercurrent. He may resort to using a sail in the water as a sea anchor hoping that the northerly eddie he is currently within will prevent him from drifting too far south with the wind.
After the cold front Ari will have to try to make the most of the south westerly and southerly winds to go as far north as possible. Above approximately 35 degrees south of latitude the prevailing surface currents and winds tend in fact to be favourable to sail towards Cape Town, out of the influence of the low pressure systems to the south that characterise the Roaring Forties. North of the Roaring Forties the route west was part of the Tea Route from the China Sea back to Europe, so it would effectively put Ari in a place where patience and prevailing conditions can be of great help to him.
As we write several other options are being considered including the possibility of further fuel being dropped by passing ships to Ari. MRCC Reunion will broadcast a message to all ships sailing within 150 miles of Ari, explaining the situation and collecting any positive response to the possibility of a fuel drop off. However, he probably needs to gain further mileage to the north as the area he is in now is still below the belt of commercial traffic.
Ari has dealt with the situation so far with a very collected, calm and positive attitude and he has repeatedly wanted to reassure everyone on land that he’s absolutely fine, just very far from land and moving very slowly with a huge challenge ahead.
We certainly admire his seamanship and management of the situation, which is far from simple. It looks like, following the short spell of northerly winds between the 26th and 27th, that Ari may have relatively favourable conditions which at least will help him gain him miles and time to find a solution, with a better jury rig and more fuel.
We would like to help support Ari in raising funds towards his salvage operation as any additional help he receives may unlock other options to speed his return to a safe port, he is obviously too far for even considering a tow, but it may become necessary to organise the private delivery of diesel to his boat and he will certainly incur many costs to address the consequences of his dismasting.. You can contribute directly through the event’s page at https://globalsolochallenge.com/product/ari-kansakoski-fundraiser/
We also wish to encourage any fishing or commercial ships that may cross those waters in the imminent future to get in contact, if they can offer any assistance by providing Ari with more fuel. Ari’s latest position on ZEROchallenge can be tracked on the Global Solo Challenge tracker at https://globalsolochallenge.com/tracking/ (from PC, or with the YB Races App from Mobile) or on his personal Predict Wind tracking page at https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/Zerochallenge/
In other news at the Global Solo Challenge, Alessandro Tosetti on Aspra has safely reached Cape Town on the 23rd of December and has been working non stop on some essential repairs to his hydrogenerator support, his genset, his mainsail halyard and other issues. He was hoping to leave on the 27th but he is still waiting to fix his genset and needs to find a weather window to leave windy Cape Town during a break in the strong South Easterly winds which prevail in the region.
Another skipper that has passed a less than perfect Christmas is Louis Robein who has started to face issues with his autopilot on the evening of the 23rd. After stopping his boat a first time by heaving-to, a maneuver that allows to stop the boat under sail, he thought he had been successful in fixing the issue which however reoccurred the following day. A new repair attempt led to a temporary fix which may not be sufficient to withstand the remainder of the circumnavigation. Louis routed himself to the north to try and avoid strong headwinds which were predicted. Matters were made worse by the loss of the use of the port hydrogenerator which forced Louis to minimise engine hours and use of power by helming throughout his Christmas. On the 26th he was able to resume his course to the east, however he is now considering a technical stop somewhere in Australia as he needs some cabling and fixtures to repair his pilot and hydrogenerator, he has run out spare parts over his many DIY projects. Louis has not yet committed to any specific decision and we will post an update as we gather further information.
A stop in Hobart had been also announced by Ronnie Simpson when he had discovered rips in his mainsail and he was forced to slow considerably down to make repairs. At the time he was sailing close to compatriot Cole Brauer north of the Kerguelens when he started losing pace whilst patching his mainsail. The gap between the two skippers went from 175 miles on the 11th of December to 486 on the 18th of December. A loss of over over 300 miles. However, in the week 19 to 26 December Ronnie re-gained over 200 miles averaging more than one knot extra, bringing the gap back to 277 miles on the morning of the 26th December. The question remains as to whether Ronnie will confirm his stop in Hobart as otherwise, what seems clear, is that at this pace he could soon undermine Cole’s second place.
At the head of the fleet, the pace and constancy of Philippe Delamare did not suffer even a minor hiccup. Philippe is averaging remarkably similar mileage week after week. He is obviously slower than most of his followers, as it should be in a pursuit even with his absolute lead progressively eroding. However, Philippe has managed to fend off the attacks of Cole Brauer, Ronnie Simpson and Andrea Mura on Vento di Sardegna keeping his relative advantage fairly constant over time meaning in the past two weeks most boats have sailed around their expected speeds for their given ratings without major relative changes in the fleet.
Pavlin Nadvorni had us all holding our breath when he wrote about his acrobatics on Christmas day trying to fix the broken joint between two sections of his headsail foil. A wave caused him to lose his balance whilst trying to reach the foil and he seriously risked a nasty injury to his knee. He aborted the attempt waiting for better conditions and we were glad to learn all was fine with his leg.
David Linger on Koloa Maoli was sucked onto the wrong side of the high pressure that over the past few days formed to the north of the Kerquelens, as it often happens it took a little time for him to accept the unfavourable developing situation before heading back south in search of favourable winds. The same situation was about to affect Edouard de Keyser on Solarwind who however bit the bullet earlier and didn’t lose as much ground. William MacBrien on Phoenix was quite pleased with himself for having avoided the windhole by decidding to dip south earlier on. Riccardo Tosetto on Obportus and Francois Gouin on Kawan3 Unicancer put in a good solid week of sailing with steady 200 miles days.
Andrea Mura on Vento di Sardegna has entered the Indian Ocean and has had to deal with very difficult seas on his first dip south. This is often the case in the South Atlantic and early part of the South Indian ocean due to the Agulhas current and eddies. He decided to sail out of those very same cross seas that ultimately led to Ari’s dismasting, to find more manageable conditions and be able to sail faster. The weather did not however evolve favourably and prudence came at the cost of loss of speed. We have often talked about the balance that must be found between risks and speed and Andrea on this occasion has opted for risk mitigation, which cost him, at the time of writing, his 4th place in the expected time of arrival rankings in favour of his compatriot Riccardo Tosetto who gained a position by a narrow margin. The seas become nicer and easier especially in the second part of the Pacific, where Philippe is sailing now, as the general surface drift aligns with the prevailing winds.
Last but not least, Kevin Le Poidevin on Roaring Forty has sailed a challenging week in strong upwind trade conditions but has made steady progress since the doldrums and now sails between Trinidade and Tristan da Cunha.
The human factor is really coming through as skippers carry on sailing in challenging conditions, they all feel like part of the same team, as Pavlin put it, and the difficulties encountered by another skipper are always cause for concern, messages of support and a reminder of the incredible task these sailors have taken on.
