Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Vendee Globe: Michel Desjoyeaux wins.

While I was in sunny but chilly Florida, Michel Desjoyeaux on Foncia won the Vendee Globe around the World race. He is known as "The Professor" but in this race he was "The Dominator". At the start, Michel Desjoyeaux, had to head back to port to fix a leaking ballast tank that had knocked out his generator. He spotted the fleet about 700 miles, caught up to the leaders in the Southern Ocean, took the lead in the race just below Australia and, in the Atlantic, had piled on another 500 miles on second place Roland Jourdain before Roland Jourdain had to retire to the Azores when he lost his keel. It was a performance worthy of that fabled remark to Queen Victoria when the yacht America raced in England, "You highness there is no second".

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