Another Day in the VendeeGlobe - Another Casualty

No, this is not an error from me, the blogger, but a last report on the VendeeGlove Sailing Race. 

Samantha o/b Saveol is reported to have lost her mast in stormy winds just North of Madeira. I feel sorry for her, the only woman in the fleet and a finisher in the last 2008 Vendee. 

archive photo: Saveol and Samantha in better times

Now the VendeeGlobe Sailing fleet is back to 16 boats, while one boat is desperately trying to sail back to base for emergency repairsl; when that would be he can re-start the Sailing Race till 20th November 13:02 local time. 

Javier Sansó o/b  Acciona 100% Eco Powered  saw his mainsail coming down after the track on the hallyard broke. Now he has to wait for calmer conditions to climb the mast for inspection and lets hope he is able to repair and continue. 
    
The lead is still with MACIF, but the followers have reduced the advance to a handful of miles. The fleet is compacting in the front on approaching the Cape Verde islands. 

That not only some of the real skippers have problems, but all of the 200,000+ virtual sailors in VirtualRegatta (VR) had some 4 hrs outage of the server on Wednesday evening (CET) and could not control their boats. Apparently VR is struggling with the large number of virtual skippers, as the Forum is now taken out and the chat is not  working. The game, however, has returned and allowing the boats to sail on.