The Vendée Globe is a 45,000km circumnavigation. The start is on the Atlantic coast of France, in Les Sables d’Olonne on 10th November 2024. The town is used to hosting race starts and the crowds which have been visiting the race village over the past few weeks will line up along the channel to cheer the 40 skippers on their way out to the start line.
Once the gun goes at 13:02 CET, the first main challenge is to get out of the Bay of Biscay and past Finisterre on the headland of Spain. Ollie will then sail south along the Portuguese coast. From there he will head into the open ocean, past Madeira and passing the Canary Islands, most likely leaving them to port (sailing terminology for keeping them on the left). Ollie continues further South, passing the Cape Verdes and the crossing the equator and into the Southern hemisphere.
Interestingly, from here, instead of continuing south and sailing along the African continent coastline, Ollie will instead head south west to the Brazilian coast which will enable him to hook onto the St Helena High. This semi-permanent high-pressure system rotates in an anti clockwise direction. If Ollie can position himself correctly, he will be able to use this motion to create a sling shot effect, carrying him round to the south.
After about 1 month of sailing Ollie will then enter the Southern Ocean and past the first of the three capes, the Cape of Good Hope. Ollie has sailed in the Southern Ocean before, but not all of it – so this will be another new milestone for him to achieve, but he already knows what to expect; strong winds, big waves and endless grey weather!
In addition, the temperature drops and it will become a long and extremely cold month as Ollie enters the polar region, tracking alongside the ice gates of Antartica until Cape Leeuin the 2nd cape, on the Western Australian coast.
He will continue bouncing off the ice gates to the south of New Zealand and into the big stretch of the South Pacific. This will be the most remote part of the journey, with no land or islands here for thousands of miles. At some point in this great expanse, Ollie can expect to celebrate Christmas and New Year too.
Hopefully, during the first two weeks of January, Ollie will pass the final cape of the circumnavigation, Cape Horn, which is a significant ‘corner’ and from here, he heads north again into the warmth. He will sail past the Falkland Isles and continue up along the South American coast, which Ollie anticipates could be one of the few upwind sailing stretches. Finally crossing the equator back into the Northern Hemisphere.
Ollie aims to catch the Azores High and do another ‘slingshot’ back across the North Atlantic and into Les Sables d’Olonne. In total, this whole journey will take somewhere between 12-14 weeks, aiming to finish in the first half of February 2025.
Watch Ollie talk through the route here!
Follow along as we share updates on Ollie's progress!
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