Southern Ocean

The place that decides everything. Below forty degrees south there is no land to stop the swell and nobody within reach to help. Cape Horn, the Roaring Forties, ice, knockdowns and rescues at the far end of a radio. Almost no still photograph of these voyages exists, so most of what is here was filmed by the sailors themselves from inside the boat.

Part of Sailing

116 moments in this segment.

  1. - 14085-2 15 Cape Horn and Valparaiso. Photographed 1853. Pamir was the last commercial sailing ship to round it with a paying cargo, on 11 July 1949.
  2. - The Merchant Brig Rimac In Two Positions Off Cape Horn, With Another Of Brocklebank's Bri. Photographed under sail, 1854. Pamir was the last commercial sailing ship to round it with a paying cargo, on 11 July 1949.
  3. - Off Cape Horn. Photographed 1877. Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America is the gate of the clipper route and the mark the Vendée Globe keeps to port. Below forty degrees south there is no land to stop the swell, which is what makes the passage what it is.
  4. - German: Schiffsportrait der Bark Isebek mit voll gehissten Segeln in der Le-Maire-Straße. Photographed under sail, 1912. Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America is the gate of the clipper route and the mark the Vendée Globe keeps to port. Below forty degrees south there is no land to stop the swell, which is what makes the passage what it is.
  5. - Endurance under full sail Frank Hurley. Endurance under sail trying to break through pack ice, Weddell Sea, Antarctica, 1915, by Frank Hurley, from original Paget Plate, 1914-1915 State Library New South Wales ON 26 -12. Endurance carried Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition into the Weddell Sea, where she was beset, crushed by ice and lost. Her people reached Elephant Island, and six of them then sailed the 22.5 foot James Caird roughly 700 nautical miles to South Georgia between 24 April and 10 May 1916.
  6. - Sailing ship Endurance trapped and crushed by ice in the Antarctic, 1915 (exbt-ice-LongNi. Photographed under sail, 1915. The boat was modified by carpenter Harry McNish, who raised her sides eight to ten inches and decked her over with wood and canvas sealed with oil paints, lamp wick and seal blood.
  7. - Elephant Isle party being rescued by the tug Yelcho. The tug Yelcho is seen in the distance as her boat rescues the party left on Elephant Isle when the James Caird sailed to South Georgia to arrange rescue for those left behind. The James Caird is a 22.5 foot double ended whaleboat, modified by carpenter Harry McNish who raised her sides eight to ten inches and built a makeshift deck of wood and canvas sealed with oil paints, lamp wick and seal blood. Rigged as a ketch with lug sails and a jib and carrying about a ton of ballast, she took six men from Elephant Island on 24 April 1916 to South Georgia on 10 May, roughly 700 nautical miles in seventeen days. She has been preserved at Dulwich College in south London since 1985.
  8. - L'équipage du "Island" [voilier] de l'expédition [Grettir] Algarsson, [au centre avec le. Photographed 1925. Frank Worsley navigated the James Caird across roughly 700 nautical miles of the Southern Ocean on brief sun sights taken as the boat pitched. In the worst weather he called his own navigation a merry jest of guesswork. He was one of the three who then crossed South Georgia on foot to Stromness.
  9. - Elephant Island NOAA. Approaching Elephant Island, South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. Elephant Island in the South Shetlands is where twenty two men of Shackleton's expedition waited while the James Caird sailed roughly 700 nautical miles to South Georgia between 24 April and 10 May 1916. It has no shelter and no way off except by sea.
  10. - CAN 191 OBSERVER SINGLE HANDED TRANS-ATLANTIC RACE. Yachts prepare for the Observer Single-Handed Trans-Atlantic Race, filmed 23 May 1964. Eric Tabarly won that edition in the purpose-built Pen Duick II in 27 days 3 hours, three days ahead of second. His win established that purpose-built boats would beat converted cruisers and made ocean racing popular in France.
  11. - SYND 16/09/1970 AMERICAS CUP INTREPID BEATS GRETEL. AP films Intrepid beating Gretel in the 1970 America's Cup on 16 September 1970. Intrepid was the American defender in a match the New York Yacht Club retained. The reel is one of the few moving-image records of that series.
  12. - Bernard Moitessier and William Rodarmor on Moitissier's boat Joshua in Tahiti in 1971. Photographed 1971. Bernard Moitessier rounded Cape Horn on 6 February 1969 lying in a position to win the Golden Globe Race, and on 18 March near Cape Town fired a message aboard a passing ship by slingshot: his intention was to continue the voyage, still nonstop, toward the Pacific Islands. He gave his reason as being happy at sea and perhaps to save his soul. He finished at Tahiti on 21 June 1969 having sailed 37,455 nautical miles over ten months, the longest non-stop passage of its era.
  13. - SYND 2-8-71 CHAY BLYTH'S VOYAGE ENDS. Chay Blyth is filmed fifty miles off Land's End on 1 August 1971 as his round the world voyage ends. He had sailed British Steel westabout, against the prevailing winds and currents, the hard way round. He later founded the Global Challenge race on the same westabout principle.
  14. - France - Yachting award. Christophe Auguin receives the Vendee Globe trophy on 4 May 1997 after an edition marked by rescues at sea and a loss. That race included Tony Bullimore's rescue, Thierry Dubois's rescue and the disappearance of Gerry Roufs. The Vendee Globe was founded by Philippe Jeantot and first sailed in 1989-90.
  15. - France - Reports of sighting of missing yachtsman. Vendee Globe organisers respond to reports from Chile of contact with the missing Canadian sailor Gerry Roufs, filmed 17 January 1997. Roufs was lying second in the South Pacific when his Argos beacon stopped transmitting, his last confirmed position roughly 369 nautical miles south of Point Nemo at 55 degrees south, 124 degrees west. Groupe LG 2 was found on the coast of Chile in July 1997 and no further explanation is established.
  16. - Packmatt brx77924. Remains of the trimaran Teignmouth Electron at Cayman Brac, photograph by Packmatt in 2001 (1). Crowhurst is presumed to have gone overboard on or about 1 July 1969. The hull later served as a cruise boat and a dive boat in the Caribbean and now lies abandoned and deteriorating on Cayman Brac.
  17. - Packmatt brx77924. Remains of the trimaran Teignmouth Electron at Cayman Brac, photograph by Packmatt in 2001 (2). Teignmouth Electron was Donald Crowhurst's 40 foot trimaran, designed by Arthur Piver, which left Teignmouth in Devon on 31 October 1968, the last permitted start date for the Golden Globe Race. She was found adrift and unoccupied on 10 July 1969 by RMV Picardy at 33°11'N 40°26'W, with three logbooks aboard.
  18. - Packmatt brx77924. Remains of the trimaran Teignmouth Electron at Cayman Brac, photograph by Packmatt in 2001 (3). Crowhurst is presumed to have gone overboard on or about 1 July 1969. The hull later served as a cruise boat and a dive boat in the Caribbean and now lies abandoned and deteriorating on Cayman Brac.
  19. - Vladimir Putin in South Africa 2006 03. Президент России Владимир Путин поднялся на фуникулере к маяку на мысе Доброй Надежды. The Cape of Good Hope is the first of the three great capes on the eastward clipper route. Cutty Sark was dismasted here in 1916 while sailing as the Portuguese Ferreira, and was re-rigged afterwards as a barquentine.
  20. - James Caird bow. 2008. The James Caird is a 22.5 foot double ended whaleboat, modified by carpenter Harry McNish who raised her sides eight to ten inches and built a makeshift deck of wood and canvas sealed with oil paints, lamp wick and seal blood. Rigged as a ketch with lug sails and a jib and carrying about a ton of ballast, she took six men from Elephant Island on 24 April 1916 to South Georgia on 10 May, roughly 700 nautical miles in seventeen days. She has been preserved at Dulwich College in south London since 1985.
  21. - James Caird stern. 2008. The James Caird is a 22.5 foot double ended whaleboat, modified by carpenter Harry McNish who raised her sides eight to ten inches and built a makeshift deck of wood and canvas sealed with oil paints, lamp wick and seal blood. Rigged as a ketch with lug sails and a jib and carrying about a ton of ballast, she took six men from Elephant Island on 24 April 1916 to South Georgia on 10 May, roughly 700 nautical miles in seventeen days. She has been preserved at Dulwich College in south London since 1985.
  22. - Cape Horn, Chile (ASTER). Photographed under sail, 2009. Pamir was the last commercial sailing ship to round it with a paying cargo, on 11 July 1949.
  23. - TeignmouthElectronWreck. Photographed as a wreck, 2011. Teignmouth Electron was Donald Crowhurst's 40 foot trimaran, designed by Arthur Piver, which left Teignmouth in Devon on 31 October 1968, the last permitted start date for the Golden Globe Race. She was found adrift and unoccupied on 10 July 1969 by RMV Picardy at 33°11'N 40°26'W, with three logbooks aboard.
  24. - Tourists land at Point Wild, Elephant Island. Tourists make a rare landing at Point Wild and photograph the monument to Piloto Pardo, commander of the Chilean navy ship that rescued Shackleton's men from Point Wild in 1916. In the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. Elephant Island in the South Shetlands is where twenty two men of Shackleton's expedition waited while the James Caird sailed roughly 700 nautical miles to South Georgia between 24 April and 10 May 1916. It has no shelter and no way off except by sea.
  25. - Volvo Ocean Race - Southern Ocean Big Wave Footage. Big wave footage from the Southern Ocean during the Volvo Ocean Race. Below forty degrees south there is no land to stop the swell, so it builds without limit around the whole globe. The Roaring Forties are named for that fetch.
  26. - Le voilier de plaisance Joshua. 2012, photographed as preserved. Joshua is Bernard Moitessier's 39 foot steel ketch, commissioned after his first book succeeded and sailed once and two thirds of the way round the world in the 1968-69 Golden Globe Race. She was beached at Cabo San Lucas in 1982, salvaged, and is preserved at the maritime museum in La Rochelle. She is one of the few objects that can carry a solo Southern Ocean voyage in a photograph.
  27. - The Toughest Sailing Race in the World | The Ocean Race. The Ocean Race presents itself as the toughest sailing race in the world. Its Southern Ocean legs run for weeks out of reach of any rescue. Hans Horrevoets drowned on leg seven of the 2005-06 edition after being washed overboard from ABN AMRO TWO about 1,300 nautical miles west of Land's End.
  28. - Vendée Globe - Day 50 highlights - Gabart and Le Cleach approaching Cape Horn. Day fifty highlights of the 2012-13 Vendee Globe as Gabart and Le Cleac'h approach Cape Horn. The pair matched each other for the whole course. Ellen MacArthur had finished second in the 2000-01 edition in 94d 04h 25m, aged twenty-four, the youngest competitor to complete the race.
  29. - Vendée globe : Day 53 Highlights - Cape Horn in sight for the leaders. Day fifty-three of the 2012-13 Vendee Globe with Cape Horn in sight for the leaders. The Vendee Globe is solo, non-stop and unassisted, with no outside help permitted except for boats with early problems within ten days of the start. Competitors must complete medical and survival training and show prior racing experience.
  30. - Cape Horn for the tow leaders of the Vendée Globe - Day 54. The two leaders of the 2012-13 Vendee Globe reach Cape Horn on day fifty-four. Francois Gabart won that edition ahead of Armel Le Cleac'h. Cape Horn is where solo skippers reliably say the race changes.
  31. - French solo sailor rescued in Southern Ocean. AFP reports the rescue of the French solo sailor Alain Delord, hauled aboard the Antarctic vessel MV Orion 500 nautical miles southwest of Hobart after three days on a life raft. Rescue in the Southern Ocean depends on whatever ship happens to be within days of steaming. Delord was sixty-three.
  32. - La vedette à passagers Perrotine et le voilier Joshua. 2013, photographed as preserved. Joshua is Bernard Moitessier's 39 foot steel ketch, commissioned after his first book succeeded and sailed once and two thirds of the way round the world in the 1968-69 Golden Globe Race. She was beached at Cabo San Lucas in 1982, salvaged, and is preserved at the maritime museum in La Rochelle. She is one of the few objects that can carry a solo Southern Ocean voyage in a photograph.
  33. - Le voilier Joshua et la vedette à passagers Perrotine. 2013, photographed as preserved. Joshua is Bernard Moitessier's 39 foot steel ketch, commissioned after his first book succeeded and sailed once and two thirds of the way round the world in the 1968-69 Golden Globe Race. She was beached at Cabo San Lucas in 1982, salvaged, and is preserved at the maritime museum in La Rochelle. She is one of the few objects that can carry a solo Southern Ocean voyage in a photograph.
  34. - Le ketch Joshua. Photographed alongside in port, 2014. Joshua is Bernard Moitessier's 39 foot steel ketch, commissioned after his first book succeeded and sailed once and two thirds of the way round the world in the 1968-69 Golden Globe Race. She was beached at Cabo San Lucas in 1982, salvaged, and is preserved at the maritime museum in La Rochelle. She is one of the few objects that can carry a solo Southern Ocean voyage in a photograph.
  35. - Water course with coal seam. Ink sketch by McCormick, 'Water course with coal seam, South Bay, June 26th', Cumberland Bay, Kerguelen Islands, South Indian Ocean. Archives & Manuscripts. Kerguelen and Île Amsterdam are the only land in a vast stretch of the southern Indian Ocean, which is why they appear in rescue accounts rather than in cruising ones. Abhilash Tomy was recovered near Île Amsterdam after being dismasted and injured on 22 September 2018 in the revived Golden Globe Race.
  36. - Terraced Hill forming West Point of Bay. Ink sketch by McCormick, 'Terraced Hill forming West Point of Bay', Cumberland Bay, Kerguelen Islands, South Indian Ocean. Archives & Manuscripts. Kerguelen and Île Amsterdam are the only land in a vast stretch of the southern Indian Ocean, which is why they appear in rescue accounts rather than in cruising ones. Abhilash Tomy was recovered near Île Amsterdam after being dismasted and injured on 22 September 2018 in the revived Golden Globe Race.
  37. - Upper End of Cumberland Bay. Ink sketch by McCormick, 'Upper End of Cumberland Bay', Kerguelen Islands, South Indian Ocean. Archives & Manuscripts. Kerguelen and Île Amsterdam are the only land in a vast stretch of the southern Indian Ocean, which is why they appear in rescue accounts rather than in cruising ones. Abhilash Tomy was recovered near Île Amsterdam after being dismasted and injured on 22 September 2018 in the revived Golden Globe Race.
  38. - Southern Cross and Magellen's Clouds. Drawn in June 1840 on Kerguelen Island. Archives & Manuscripts. Kerguelen and Île Amsterdam are the only land in a vast stretch of the southern Indian Ocean, which is why they appear in rescue accounts rather than in cruising ones. Abhilash Tomy was recovered near Île Amsterdam after being dismasted and injured on 22 September 2018 in the revived Golden Globe Race.
  39. - DrakeP1. Tourist expedition ship Akademik Ioffe sailing across the Drake Passage to Antarctica. The Drake Passage between Cape Horn and the Antarctic Peninsula is the narrowest point of the Southern Ocean, where the entire circumpolar current is squeezed through roughly 800 kilometres of open water.
  40. - Join the Race - Leg 3: Southern Ocean Sleigh Ride. The Clipper Round the World Race previews its Southern Ocean leg for amateur crew. Chay Blyth founded the Clipper race to put paying amateurs on a round-the-world course. The Southern Ocean leg is the one the entry material warns hardest about.
  41. - Inside Track: Leg 5 #5 Southern Ocean death rolls | Volvo Ocean Race 2014-15. Three boats broach and a fourth wipes out on the Southern Ocean leg of the 2014-15 Volvo Ocean Race, with all crew unhurt. A death roll is a downwind broach in which the boat rolls to windward and the rig goes over. Onboard reporters film these because there is nobody else within a thousand miles.
  42. - Movie Making In Teignmouth. Photographed alongside in port, 2015. Crowhurst is presumed to have gone overboard on or about 1 July 1969. The hull later served as a cruise boat and a dive boat in the Caribbean and now lies abandoned and deteriorating on Cayman Brac.
  43. - Teignmouth Electron Replica. Photographed alongside in port, 2015. Teignmouth Electron was Donald Crowhurst's 40 foot trimaran, designed by Arthur Piver, which left Teignmouth in Devon on 31 October 1968, the last permitted start date for the Golden Globe Race. She was found adrift and unoccupied on 10 July 1969 by RMV Picardy at 33°11'N 40°26'W, with three logbooks aboard.
  44. - HMAS Nizam memorial, Cape Leeuwin, 2015. View of the HMAS Nizam memorial at Cape Leeuwin, Western Australia. The memorial commemorates 10 sailors who lost their lives when the HMAS Nizam was hit by a king wave while rounding Cape Leeuwin in 1945. Cape Leeuwin at the south western corner of Australia is the second of the three great capes and, with Cape Horn, one of the two marks the Vendée Globe fleet must leave to port on its clockwise run round Antarctica.
  45. - Cape of Good Hope from Cape Point. Photographed 2015. The Cape of Good Hope is the first of the three great capes on the eastward clipper route. Cutty Sark was dismasted here in 1916 while sailing as the Portuguese Ferreira, and was re-rigged afterwards as a barquentine.
  46. - Spectacular Christmas morning cruise through the remants of giant Tabular iceberg B15Y, w. Photographed 2015. Ice is the hazard that sets the southern limit of every modern round the world race, which is why organisers impose an Antarctic ice gate the fleet may not cross. The Vendée Globe runs clockwise round Antarctica between that limit and the three great capes.
  47. - First Daylight. 2016. Elephant Island in the South Shetlands is where twenty two men of Shackleton's expedition waited while the James Caird sailed roughly 700 nautical miles to South Georgia between 24 April and 10 May 1916. It has no shelter and no way off except by sea.
  48. - Iceberg alley. Leaving South Georgia on Bark Europa. Ice is the hazard that sets the southern limit of every modern round the world race, which is why organisers impose an Antarctic ice gate the fleet may not cross. The Vendée Globe runs clockwise round Antarctica between that limit and the three great capes.
  49. - Striated iceberg, South Shetland Islands. Photographed 2016. Ice is the hazard that sets the southern limit of every modern round the world race, which is why organisers impose an Antarctic ice gate the fleet may not cross. The Vendée Globe runs clockwise round Antarctica between that limit and the three great capes.
  50. - A56 SouthGeorgia vir Iceberg lrg. Archipiélago de las Islas Georgia del Sur e Iceberg A - 56. Ice is the hazard that sets the southern limit of every modern round the world race, which is why organisers impose an Antarctic ice gate the fleet may not cross. The Vendée Globe runs clockwise round Antarctica between that limit and the three great capes.
  51. - Exceptionnel ! La Marine Nationale nous a envoyé les images d'Armel et Alex / Vendée Globe. French navy aircraft film Armel Le Cleac'h and Alex Thomson at sea on day twenty-five of the 2016-17 Vendee Globe. Air-to-sea footage of the fleet is rare because the boats are usually beyond aircraft range. The navy passed the images to the race organisers.
  52. - J47 : Armel Le Cléac'h a franchi le Cap Horn / Vendée Globe. Armel Le Cleac'h passes Cape Horn on day forty-seven of the 2016-17 Vendee Globe. The race runs clockwise around Antarctica keeping Cape Horn and Cape Leeuwin to port. Its course is roughly 24,000 nautical miles from and to Les Sables-d'Olonne.
  53. - D50 : Alex Thomson crosses the Cape Horn / Vendée Globe. Alex Thomson crosses Cape Horn on day fifty of the 2016-17 Vendee Globe. Cape Horn marks the end of the Southern Ocean and the turn north for the Atlantic. Armel Le Cleac'h won that edition.
  54. - D73 : Rich Wilson in the islands just after Cape Horn / Vendée Globe. Rich Wilson sails among the islands just after Cape Horn on day seventy-three of the 2016-17 Vendee Globe. Wilson was the oldest competitor in that edition. The islands south of Tierra del Fuego are the first land many skippers see in two months.
  55. - ISS-52 Aurora australis above the Southern Ocean south of Australia. The aurora and the night sky above Earth’s atmosphere are pictured from the space station. A portion of the station’s solar arrays and a pair of nitrogen/oxygen recharge system tanks are pictured in the foreground. The Southern Ocean circles Antarctica with no land to interrupt the swell, which is why the Roaring Forties run uninterrupted round the globe. It is also structurally under photographed: there is nobody there, so the solo voyages that define it left almost no contemporaneous images.
  56. - Volvo Ocean Race RAW: \"Southern Ocean Sleigh Ride\" - Leg 3 Review. An unedited review of the Cape Town to Melbourne leg of the 2017-18 Volvo Ocean Race. This is the leg that crosses the deep Southern Ocean and it decides most editions. Charles Caudrelier's Dongfeng Race Team won that edition overall.
  57. - Wikimania by Rehman - 2018-07-18 - B010 - Cape of Good Hope. Photographs of subjects taken before, during, or after Wikimania 2018, held in Cape Town, South Africa. More information may be found in the categories of this file. The Cape of Good Hope is the first of the three great capes on the eastward clipper route. Cutty Sark was dismasted here in 1916 while sailing as the Portuguese Ferreira, and was re-rigged afterwards as a barquentine.
  58. - Cabo de Buena Esparanza, Sudáfrica, 2018-07-23, DD 74-80 PAN. Photographed 2018. The Cape of Good Hope is the first of the three great capes on the eastward clipper route. Cutty Sark was dismasted here in 1916 while sailing as the Portuguese Ferreira, and was re-rigged afterwards as a barquentine.
  59. - Cape horn. Photographed 2019. Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America is the gate of the clipper route and the mark the Vendée Globe keeps to port. Below forty degrees south there is no land to stop the swell, which is what makes the passage what it is.
  60. - Movie Making In Teignmouth ( )-cropped. Full scale replica of yachtsman Donald Crowhurst's trimaran "Teignmouth Electron" as constructed for the 2017 film "The Mercy", in Teignmouth, 2015 (crop from original photo at); original on Flickr at. Teignmouth Electron was Donald Crowhurst's 40 foot trimaran, designed by Arthur Piver, which left Teignmouth in Devon on 31 October 1968, the last permitted start date for the Golden Globe Race. She was found adrift and unoccupied on 10 July 1969 by RMV Picardy at 33°11'N 40°26'W, with three logbooks aboard.
  61. - Alex Thomson Racing: One week to the Vendée Globe start. Alex Thomson's team one week before the 2020-21 Vendee Globe start. Thomson finished second in 2016-17 after sailing much of the race with one foil broken. He retired from the 2020-21 edition with structural damage.
  62. - A-68A Iceberg headed toward South Georgia Island (MODIS 2020-11-09). Photographed as a wreck, 2020. The James Caird made South Georgia on 10 May 1916 after seventeen days from Elephant Island, landing at Cave Cove near King Haakon Bay. Shackleton, Worsley and Crean then crossed the island on foot in a continuous 36 hour march from 18 May and reached the whaling station at Stromness on 19 May.
  63. - Onboard video - Boris HERRMANN | SEAEXPLORER - YACHT CLUB DE MONACO - 13.11 (2). Another onboard video from Boris Herrmann during the 2020-21 Vendee Globe. IMOCA 60s carry a canting keel tilting up to 38 degrees each side, introduced to the class in 1998. That system is what allows one person to drive a 60 ft boat hard.
  64. - Vendée Live #08 [EN]. An English-language Vendee Globe live show from the 2020-21 edition. Live shows connect to skippers by satellite while they are at sea. Philippe Jeantot founded the race as The Globe Challenge and Titouan Lamazou won the first edition in 1989-90.
  65. - Coup de chaud pour Pip HARE | On board｜Vendée Globe 2020. Pip Hare deals with a moment of alarm aboard during the 2020-21 Vendee Globe. Onboard video from this race is filed by the skippers themselves under race rules. It is the closest record that exists of solo sailing in the deep south.
  66. - Pip HARE manque cruellement de sommeil | On board｜Vendée Globe 2020. Pip Hare films herself badly short of sleep during the 2020-21 Vendee Globe. Solo skippers sleep in fragments of twenty to forty minutes across the whole race. Sleep management is as decisive as boat speed over eighty days.
  67. - Flying Around the World on a Foiling IMOCA 60. The 11th Hour Racing Team shows a foiling IMOCA 60 at speed. Foils were permitted in the class from 2013 alongside one-design masts and keel fins. The boat leaves the water almost entirely on a reach.
  68. - Onboard video - Boris HERRMANN | SEAEXPLORER - YACHT CLUB DE MONACO - 26.11. A second onboard report from Boris Herrmann in the 2020-21 Vendee Globe. The race requires skippers to send video and stills at intervals, which is why this archive exists at all. Herrmann sails for the Yacht Club de Monaco.
  69. - Vendée Flash #20 [EN]. An English-language Vendee Globe daily bulletin from the 2020-21 edition. Race organisers publish daily summaries built from position reports and skipper calls. The race runs from November to February, through the southern summer.
  70. - Vendée Globe skipper Kevin Escoffier rescued from liferaft by fellow competitor. Vendee Globe assistant race director Hubert Lemonnier describes Jean Le Cam's rescue of Kevin Escoffier, who abandoned PRB 840 miles off South Africa. Competitor-to-competitor rescue is a recurring feature of the race because no other vessel is within reach. Pete Goss had done the same for Raphael Dinelli in 1996-97, sailing two days into hurricane-force winds to reach a life raft.
  71. - Kojiro Shiraishi | Japan's Vendée Hero | Vendée Globe 2020. A profile of Kojiro Shiraishi, the Japanese Vendee Globe skipper. Shiraishi was the first Asian sailor to complete the race. The Vendee Globe fleet has become steadily less exclusively French.
  72. - Onboard video - Boris HERRMANN | SEAEXPLORER - YACHT CLUB DE MONACO - 11.12 (2). Boris Herrmann files onboard video from SeaExplorer during the 2020-21 Vendee Globe. Herrmann led near the finish before a collision with a fishing vessel in the closing miles. Yannick Bestaven won that edition on corrected time.
  73. - Onboard video - Boris HERRMANN | SEAEXPLORER - YACHT CLUB DE MONACO - 05.01. A late onboard report from Boris Herrmann in the 2020-21 Vendee Globe. He carried scientific instruments measuring ocean carbon dioxide throughout the race. Research payloads have become common on IMOCA campaigns.
  74. - Vendée Globe finish: Final hours of solo round-the-world sailing race. France 24 reports on the final hours of the 2020-21 Vendee Globe. That edition finished with several boats arriving within hours after eighty days at sea. Yannick Bestaven took the win on corrected time after time allowances for rescue diversions.
  75. - Vidéo du bord - Didac COSTA | ONE PLANET ONE OCEAN - 28.01 (1). Didac Costa files an onboard video during the 2020-21 Vendee Globe. Costa sailed an older generation boat without foils against the newer foiling fleet. Non-foiling IMOCAs remain competitive in heavy upwind conditions.
  76. - Radio beacon mast foundations, Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse, February 2021 01. Photographed in detail on deck, 2021. Cape Leeuwin at the south western corner of Australia is the second of the three great capes and, with Cape Horn, one of the two marks the Vendée Globe fleet must leave to port on its clockwise run round Antarctica.
  77. - ISS-65 Aurora australis above the southern Indian Ocean. The aurora australis streams across the Earth's atmosphere as the International Space Station orbited 271 miles above the southern Indian Ocean in between Asia and Antarctica. The Southern Ocean circles Antarctica with no land to interrupt the swell, which is why the Roaring Forties run uninterrupted round the globe. It is also structurally under photographed: there is nobody there, so the solo voyages that define it left almost no contemporaneous images.
  78. - Sailing HydraPlay - Vendee Globe 2024. A preview looking ahead to the 2024-25 Vendee Globe. Each edition is sailed four years after the last from Les Sables-d'Olonne. Charlie Dalin won the 2024-25 race in 64d 19h 23m.
  79. - Jeremy Bagshaw - 2022 Golden Globe Race Entrant. Jeremy Bagshaw introduces himself as a 2022 Golden Globe Race entrant. The 2022-23 edition started from Les Sables-d'Olonne on 4 September 2022. Kirsten Neuschafer won it in Minnehaha, a Cape George 36 launched in 1988 that she refitted over a year in Prince Edward Island.
  80. - The Brig 'Martha' passing the Fastnet Rock, homeward bound for Liverpool. Photographed under sail, 2022. Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America is the gate of the clipper route and the mark the Vendée Globe keeps to port. Below forty degrees south there is no land to stop the swell, which is what makes the passage what it is.
  81. - Expedition Cruisers at Elephant Island. A zodiac load of expedition cruisers approaches Point Wild on Elephant Island, Antarctica. Elephant Island in the South Shetlands is where twenty two men of Shackleton's expedition waited while the James Caird sailed roughly 700 nautical miles to South Georgia between 24 April and 10 May 1916. It has no shelter and no way off except by sea.
  82. - Solo Kirsten Neuschafer just rounded the legendary Cape Horn, 1st in the Golden Globe Race !. Kirsten Neuschafer rounds Cape Horn leading the 2022-23 Golden Globe Race. She went on to win, becoming the first woman to win the Golden Globe Race since it began in 1968 and the first woman to win any round-the-world race by the three great capes, solo or crewed, non-stop or staged. She was also the first South African sailor to win a round-the-world event.
  83. - Cape Town Leg 3 Departure The Ocean Race 2022-23 | Eurosport. The full Cape Town leg three departure broadcast from the 2022-23 Ocean Race. That leg was the longest in the race's history at the time. The fleet sailed IMOCA 60s alongside a VO65 class.
  84. - Cape Town Leg 3 Departure | The Ocean Race 2022-23 | Eurosport. Broadcast coverage of the Cape Town departure for leg three of the 2022-23 Ocean Race. Cape Town has been a stopover since the first Whitbread in 1973. Leg three of that edition ran to Itajai in Brazil by way of the Southern Ocean and Cape Horn.
  85. - Leg 3 - Day 22 Update: The Southern Ocean workshop | Part 1. Day twenty-two of leg three of the 2022-23 Ocean Race, with the 11th Hour Racing Team making repairs in the Southern Ocean. Every offshore crew is also its own machine shop because there is no assistance. Charlie Enright's team won that edition in an IMOCA 60.
  86. - 'Too Close to Call' | Leg 3 31/03 | The Ocean Race Show. The Ocean Race show covers a close finish on leg three of the 2022-23 edition. Leg results are decided by hours after weeks at sea. The IMOCA 60 joined the race alongside the VO65 from 2023.
  87. - The History Making Journey | Leg 3 Highlights - Part 1 | The Ocean Race. Highlights from leg three of the 2022-23 Ocean Race, Cape Town to Itajai. The leg crossed the Southern Ocean and rounded Cape Horn. WindWhisper Racing Team of Poland won the VO65 class that edition.
  88. - IMOCA boats foiling at 40 knots I 2023 Guyader Bermudes 1000 Race. IMOCA 60s foiling at forty knots in the 2023 Guyader Bermudes 1000 Race. Those speeds are sustained on a reach in flat water rather than in Southern Ocean swell. The same boats sail the Vendee Globe and The Ocean Race.
  89. - ONBOARD FOOTAGE I Thomas Ruyant's new IMOCA is fast... VERY FAST!. Onboard footage from Thomas Ruyant's new IMOCA. The class rule is open within measurement limits, so each new boat is a fresh design bet. Hulls run 59 to 60 ft with beam capped at 5.85 m.
  90. - ONBOARD FOOTAGE OF THE CRASH IN THE HAGUE | Leg 7 Start | The Ocean Race. Onboard footage of a collision at the leg seven start in The Hague during the 2022-23 Ocean Race. In-port and leg starts put foiling 60 ft boats into close quarters at speed. Damage at a start can end a leg before the fleet reaches open water.
  91. - Radio beacon mast foundations, Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse, October 2023. Photographed in detail on deck, 2023. Cape Leeuwin at the south western corner of Australia is the second of the three great capes and, with Cape Horn, one of the two marks the Vendée Globe fleet must leave to port on its clockwise run round Antarctica.
  92. - Rescue teams swiftly locate lost sailor in Southern Ocean. A South African news report on rescue teams locating a solo sailor in the Southern Ocean after his personal locator beacon activated. Beacons are the one piece of modern equipment the revived Golden Globe Race permits, alongside AIS. Without them a Southern Ocean loss produces no position at all.
  93. - The height of IMOCA flight I Défi Azimut 2023. An IMOCA at full flight height during the 2023 Defi Azimut. The class association publishes technical footage of the boats between ocean races. Flight height control is the central problem of a foiling monohull.
  94. - Check the boat before southern ocean for Oliver Heer | Vendée Globe 2024. Oliver Heer checks over his boat before entering the Southern Ocean in the 2024-25 Vendee Globe. Skippers work through the rig and systems before the point where repair becomes impossible. Every IMOCA must pass a 90 or 180 degree self-righting test.
  95. - Vendée Globe : Les images impressionnantes de ce skipper quasi englouti par une vague. Yoann Richomme's IMOCA is buried by a wave in the 2024-25 Vendee Globe, filmed on 9 December 2024 when he was lying third. Foiling IMOCAs sail fast enough to drive the bow into the back of the wave ahead. The motion below decks is violent enough to injure.
  96. - Conditions dantesques pour Guirec Soudée | Vendée Globe 2024. Guirec Soudee sails in severe conditions during the 2024-25 Vendee Globe. Skippers film their own worst weather because there is no other camera. Onboard video is the only visual record of the Southern Ocean legs.
  97. - Passage historique du cap Horn | Vendée Globe 2024. A Cape Horn passage during the 2024-25 Vendee Globe. The cape sits at the southern tip of South America where the Pacific and Atlantic meet over a shallowing shelf. It has been the marker of a completed southern passage since the age of commercial sail.
  98. - Depression before Cape Horn for Sam Goodchild | Vendée Globe 2024. Sam Goodchild faces a depression before Cape Horn in the 2024-25 Vendee Globe. Low-pressure systems track eastward through the Southern Ocean and skippers position for them days ahead. Weather routing is permitted in the Vendee Globe, unlike in the revived Golden Globe Race.
  99. - Sam Goodchild crosses Cape Horn | Vendée Globe 2024. Sam Goodchild crosses Cape Horn in the 2024-25 Vendee Globe. Charlie Dalin won that edition in Macif Sante Prevoyance in 64d 19h 23m, the race record. Cape Horn roundings are filmed by the skipper alone with a handheld camera.
  100. - Just over 1300 miles to Cape Horn for Conrad Colman | Vendée Globe 2024. Conrad Colman with just over 1,300 miles to Cape Horn in the 2024-25 Vendee Globe. The approach across the South Pacific is the loneliest stretch of the course, passing near Point Nemo. Point Nemo is the ocean point furthest from any land.
  101. - Conrad Colman rounds Cape Horn in his turn | Vendée Globe 2024. Conrad Colman rounds Cape Horn in the 2024-25 Vendee Globe. Colman finished the 2016-17 edition under jury rig after dismasting near the end. Completing rather than winning is the ordinary outcome in this race.
  102. - Jingkun Xu talks with the lighthouse keeper of Cape Horn | Vendée Globe 2024. Jingkun Xu speaks with the Cape Horn lighthouse keeper during the 2024-25 Vendee Globe. The Chilean navy maintains a manned station on Isla Hornos and skippers routinely call it on VHF. It is often the only human voice heard in weeks.
  103. - Iceberg A23a breaks apart north of South Georgia Island (Copernicus 2025-09-16). Photographed as a wreck, 2025. The James Caird made South Georgia on 10 May 1916 after seventeen days from Elephant Island, landing at Cave Cove near King Haakon Bay. Shackleton, Worsley and Crean then crossed the island on foot in a continuous 36 hour march from 18 May and reached the whaling station at Stromness on 19 May.
  104. - The Golden Globe Race That Changed Sailing. An account of the 1968-69 Golden Globe Race and its effect on the sport. Nine sailors started with staggered departures and 31 October 1968 as the last permitted start date. Robin Knox-Johnston alone finished, taking 312 days in the 32 ft ketch Suhaili, and he gave his 5,000 pound prize to Donald Crowhurst's widow and children.
  105. - J+7 : une semaine de course, soleil de minuit | Vendée Arctique Les Sables d'Olonne 2026. Day seven of the Vendee Arctique, sailing under the midnight sun. The northern course takes the fleet above the Arctic Circle in summer. It is the inverse of the Vendee Globe's southern latitudes.
  106. - Interview d'Ambrogio Beccaria à bord de l'Imoca Allagrande Matei. An interview with Ambrogio Beccaria aboard his IMOCA after the Vendee Arctique. Onboard interviews are conducted by satellite link while the skipper is still sailing. The class races the Vendee Globe, the Route du Rhum, the Transat Jacques Vabre and The Ocean Race.
  107. - J+8 - La Vendée Arctique - Les Sables d'Olonne 2026 vient de connaître l'un de ses tournants. A daily bulletin from day eight of the Vendee Arctique. Daily bulletins carry position changes and weather. Solo fleets compress and separate repeatedly as systems pass through.
  108. - Passage de ligne en 2ème position pour Sam Goodchild I Vendée Arctique - Les Sables d'Olonne 2026. Sam Goodchild crosses the Vendee Arctique finish line in second place. Goodchild also sailed the 2024-25 Vendee Globe. The Arctique runs north into high latitudes rather than south.
  109. - Nico D'Estais à la manoeuvre dans son cockpit | Vendée Arctique - Les Sables 2026. Nico D'Estais works in the cockpit of his IMOCA during the Vendee Arctique. Every manoeuvre on a solo 60 ft boat is done by one person using powered winches and autopilots. Autopilot capability is one of the electronics the revived Golden Globe Race bans outright.
  110. - J+9 : Ambrogio Beccaria remporte la Vendée Arctique | Vendée Arctique Les Sables d'Olonne 2026. Ambrogio Beccaria wins the Vendee Arctique on day nine. The race is run by the Vendee Globe organisation as a solo IMOCA qualifier and warm-up. Italian skippers have become a regular presence in the class.
  111. - Passage de ligne en 3ème position pour Violette Dorange | Vendée Arctique - Les Sables d'Olonne 2026. Violette Dorange finishes the Vendee Arctique in third place. Dorange was the youngest skipper in the 2024-25 Vendee Globe. Women have competed in the Vendee Globe since its early editions.
  112. - Remontée des pontons et présentation des skippers. Skipper presentations along the pontoons before the Vendee Arctique. The pontoon walk at Les Sables-d'Olonne is the ritual before every race the organisation runs. Crowds come to see the boats out of the water and up close.
  113. - J+10 : les premiers mots des skippers et la bagarre finale | Vendée Arctique 2026. First words from the skippers and the closing fight of the Vendee Arctique on day ten. Solo races finish with skippers who have not slept properly for over a week. The finish is at Les Sables-d'Olonne.
  114. - J+11 : Un mot de Nico et d'Arnaud à l'arrivée de la Vendée Arctique 2026. Skippers speak on arrival at the end of the Vendee Arctique on day eleven. Arrival interviews on the pontoon are a fixture of French solo racing coverage. Les Sables-d'Olonne is the home port of the discipline.
  115. - J+12 : Cérémonie de remise des trophées de la Vendée Arctique - Les Sables d'Olonne 2026. The Vendee Arctique prize giving on day twelve. Prize givings close each event in the IMOCA calendar. The class calendar builds toward the Vendee Globe every four years.
  116. - Revivez le Grand Nord avec les skippers | Vendée Arctique - Les Sables d’Olonne 2026. Skippers recount the far north during the Vendee Arctique from Les Sables-d'Olonne. The Arctique is a solo IMOCA race the Vendee Globe organisers run in the northern summer as preparation. It uses the same boats and the same solo rules as the main race.
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