The skippers in the Vendée Globe sail around the world from west to east, following a precise route starting from Les Sables d'Olonne, crossing different oceans and skirting several countries. Find out more about the major capes and points of passage crossed by the skippers during their adventure.
The port of Les Sables d'Olonne
The port of Les Sables d’Olonne consists of several basins: fishing, yachting and commercial. A village is set up in Port Olona for the Vendée Globe. This is the town's marina.
The Bay of Biscay
Although the Bay of Biscay more accurately describes a geographical area lying between southern Brittany and the north-western tip of Spain, it is home to a phenomenon of low pressure known as atmospheric lows, which can bring severe gales, impressive breaking swells and sustained rainfall.
The Bay of Biscay, combined with fairly heavy shipping, is the skippers' first pitfall in terms of weather.
The equator
The equator is an imaginary line that encircles the earth at its widest point. It measures around 40,075 km. It marks the separation between the northern and southern hemispheres. The equator is the same distance from the North and South poles.
Do you know ?
Crossing the equator, known as “crossing the line”, is a tradition all sailors cherish. In crews, when a sailor crosses the equator for the first time, he is knocked about by his mates and they make offerings to Neptune, king of the seas. It's a moment of celebration, like an initiatory ritual. Newcomers to the Vendée Globe carry on the tradition all by themselves!
The Cape of Good Hope
This is one of the most dangerous capes in the world because of the violent winds and the opposing currents of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. For the Vendée Globe sailors, rounding this cape symbolises their entry into the cold, rough seas in the southern part of the planet.
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In 1488, a Portuguese explorer, Bartolomeu Dias, attempted to sail south around the African coast to find a sea route to India. Near the southernmost part of the continent, the fleet was caught in a storm blowing towards the coast at Sainte-Blaise Bay (now Mossel Bay), 370 km east of the tip of South Africa. Bartholomeu Dias realised that they had passed the Cape of Good Hope without seeing it, and were now in the Indian Ocean. He decided to continue exploring, but his crew rebelled. Turning back, he recognised the point and named it the Cape of Storms. Later, to avoid frightening sailors, it was given a new name: the Cape of Good Hope.
CThis discovery was crucial, as it proved that there was a sea route to India.
The Antarctic Exclusion Zone (AEZ)
In this very southerly zone, a particular danger lies in wait for sailors: icebergs – blocks of ice that break away from the continent – and growlers, pieces of ice that float on the surface and are difficult to spot on a radar. To minimise the danger to competitors, the race management has set up an Antarctic Exclusion Zone: an imaginary line (made up of 72 points according to the position of the ice during the race) that skippers are forbidden to cross, thus ensuring they do not get too close to Antarctica and these invisible dangers.
Cape Leuuwin
Located at the south-western tip of Australia, Cape Leuuwin is very far north of the route taken by the skippers. It is not, as is often thought, the gateway to the Pacific, which begins south of Tasmania. During the race, this cape marks the definitive entry into the Southern Ocean with its extreme weather conditions. It’s rather like starting the climb to the very top of Mount Everest!
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This cape owes its name to the Dutch galleon Leeuwin (lioness in Flemish), which discovered it in 1622.
The Nemo Point
The Nemo Point, or the “Maritime Pole of Inaccessibility”, is the point in the ocean furthest from any land, the nearest island being 2,688 kilometres away.
Do you know ?
This point owes its name to Captain Nemo, the famous character from Jules Verne's novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Nemo is the Latin for "nobody".
Cape Horn
The strong winds and powerful waves of this region account for the Horn’s infamous reputation as the deadliest shipping lane in the world.
Rounding Cape Horn is a reason for celebrating on board. Because for the Vendée Globe skippers, the hardest part is over, with no more icebergs, polar conditions, gloves, hats, etc. To double this cape, they have had to descend as far as possible, sail along the 60th parallel and head north, where the sea warms up and the winds die down. This is the final stretch before the finish. But be warned: anything can still happen!
Do you know ? />The cape is named after a town in the Netherlands. Jacques Lemaire, Guillaume Schouten and their crew set sail from the port of Horn in the Netherlands on 16 May 1615 and reached Cape Horn for the first time on 31 January 1616. They named it after their home port.
