It was at 08 hours 00 minutes and 57 seconds GMT this Friday 25th February 2005 that the 60 foot monohull Ocean Planet skippered by American Bruce Schwab crossed the finish line of the Vendée Globe 2004, a single-handed race, without stopovers and without assistance departing and finishing in Les Sables d’Olonne (France). In looping this particular loop of the world, Bruce goes down in history as the first American to complete the Vendée Globe. The race time to make the 23 680 miles is 109 days 19 hours 58 minutes and 57 seconds at an average theoretical speed across the course of 8.98 knots. He was 22 days 9 hours and 11 minutes and 02 seconds behind winner Vincent Riou’s time. With just four French skippers remaining racing, the next arrival is expected to be Benoît Parnaudeau who is currently 977.9 miles from a possible Wednesday finish next week. Backrunner Karen Leibovici still has 1517.9 miles to go to complete her Vendée Globe.
With seemingly four seasons in one day in the Bay of Biscay, Bruce Schwab was really up against it in these final days before the completion of his first Vendée Globe; conditions that hopefully will have made this personal victory all the more sweet today. Initially he was beaten by messy seas and shifty winds as he rounded Cape Finisterre a couple of days ago. Yesterday the American skipper was treated to sunny, mill pond conditions with little to no wind, last night he was served up hail and snow storms and finally this morning, after a very slow upwind tack for some hours, just 2 or 3 miles from what looked like the most perfect finish in the exquisite early morning light of winter, a pea souper of a fog enveloped Ocean Planet until right at the very last minute. Fortunately conditions cleared just long enough to enable Bruce to receive his official race time of 109 days 19 hours 58 minutes and 57 seconds. So it was this morning then that a tired but elated Bruce Schwab became the first American to loop the Vendée Globe loop.
Bruce covered an actual distance of 28112 miles and an actual speed across the course of 10.66 knots and his optimistic, upbeat attitude has stood him in good stead throughout this entire challenge.
With all the Anglo-Saxon skippers that set out on this Vendée Globe, either safely into the finish or safely home, just 4 French skippers remain racing out on the water today.
