Charlie Dalin and Yann Elies in the French Live today....Elies:'Let Sport Do Its Magic!'
This is race leader Charlie Dalin on the French live this morning, "I haven’t actually properly realised that the arrival is in 36 hours or so, I’m so concentrated on my race, my trajectory, my sail changes, I’ve been so long at sea that I just can’t seem to get my head around the fact that the finish is so soon. I’m just uber concentrated on the next coming hours, all the zones left to cross through, that’s more or less my state of mind at the moment.
Miranda Merron this morning....plastic and fishing gear in the water 2000 miles from land
As Manu Cousin said yesterday, getting through the high pressure has been pretty hard work with very little wind and big shifts, often just 1 knot, sometimes 2 - 3 knots, and when occasionally there were 4 knots of wind, it felt like Christmas. Still not much wind, but it is definitely east.
The lack of wind meant that I had ample time to see what floated past the boat in ripple-free water, and I was dismayed to see just how much rubbish there is in the sea, mostly bits of fishing gear and plastic. I am a long way from land in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, 1200 miles off the coast of South America and more than 2000 miles from Africa.
News26 January 2021
Rolling Into Big Wednesday
This is D Day for this Vendée Globe, when it will slowly become evident how the two different strategies are going to play out. It looks like the group which have gone north to come in with the stronger breeze, Thomas Ruyant (LinkedOut) in fourth and fifth placed Yannick Bestaven (Maître Coq IV) have taken most of their losses relative to the three leaders – Charlie Dalin (APIVIA), Louis Burton (Bureau Vallée 2) and Boris Herrmann (Seaexplorer-Yacht Club de Monaco) and when they gybe today will start to head towards Les Sables d’Olonne hoping to bring in the stronger wind and come in faster to close down the top trio.
First three boats in four hours on Wednesday afternoon? North or South, high risk or low risk?
Leader Dalin fastest
After 24,300 nautical miles and more than 80 days of racing around the world victory or a place on the podium on this ninth edition of the Vendée Globe might go down to the final layline, picking and sailing the perfect compass course from more than 100 miles out to the finish line at Les Sables d’Olonne’s famous Nouche Sud buoy.
