Vendee Globe : stressful areas

Situation 06/12/2012 12:00 PM UTC (Armel Le Cléac'h Not Localized at the 'Crozet security gate')

The orange lines represent the "northern limit of icebergs found".
The horizontal white line is Latitude 40° S.

Roaring Forties area
Welcome to the south (VG2012 news)

Alex Thomson at 25 knots onboard 'Hugo Boss'
located the most southern of the fleet

The Prince Edward Islands are two small islands in the sub-antarctic Indian Ocean that are part of South Africa : the islands are named Marion Island and Prince Edward Island.

The Crozet Islands (French: Îles Crozet; or, officially, Archipel Crozet) are a sub-antarctic archipelago of 5 small islands in the southern Indian Ocean

(Île aux Cochons, Île des Pingouins, Îlots des Apôtres, Île de la Possession, Île de l'Est)

The ice is close...

"Previously we were much further south and so the high pressure areas would not have the same impact. It is difficult now, much more complicated." Mike Golding

monitoring of sea ice and icebergs (MDA / CLS)

The decision has been made for the Crozet ice gate to be moved by more than 400 miles, extending the Vendée Globe course by around 300 miles.

The reason for this move is due to the detection of an abnormal cluster of small icebergs, measuring over 20 meters in diameter.

Due to the risk of Icebergs, the Collecte Localisation satellite (CLS) constantly tracks the movement of the icebergs for the Vendée Globe and sends daily updates to the skippers.

Ice gates were brought into the race in 2000-2001 for safety reasons, whereas previously skippers played the risk of sailing further south to reduce the distance of their circumnavigation.

These gates can be moved during the race if there is reason to do so, which is the case this year.

Radarsat2 capable to detect 100m size iceberg max