An unruly, unrelenting Pacific, Bestaven's lead evaporating in the Atlantic
The Pacific is proving particularly unrelenting for the Vendée Globe racers still racing eastwards towards Cape Horn. There might be the odd pause for a few hours before the next low pressure system kicks them along the course towards deliverance, and the big left turn out of the Southern Ocean and into the more sheltered waters of the Atlantic.
The next wagon train of IMOCA 60s presently routing their approach to the Horn is led by Alan Roura, with Arnaud Boissières and Briton Pip Hare all close behind. These three musketeers should pass between Sunday night and Monday lunchtime.
Stephane Le Diraison, Time for Oceans, "
“This is a real Pacific we are having, one that does not carry its name well, it is quite harsh for the six boats among which I am sailing. I have had three reefs in my main sail for a week and for the past 48 hours have had my storm sail up. Yesterday I think I got the worst of it with winds reaching 60 knots and waves with troughs of six to eight metres.
On L'Occitane en Provence, Tripon is climbing up the South Atlantic in increasingly lighter conditions. For the first time in a long time, he has enjoyed a starry sky and pleasant temperatures in the cockpit. The job list today? Managing the boat, sailing well, some DIY and the strategy.
Skippers of the 14 IMOCAs in the South Atlantic now reap the benefits of clearer, bluer skies, sun warming their skin in the sun and their bodies recover during short restoring naps. The next group to reach Cape Horn and the release into the Atlantic have less than 700 nautical miles to go, among them Switzerland’s Alan Roura and Briton Pip Hare. But for them in the South Pacific, conditions are freezing and uncomfortable. Now stretching of the latitude of Porto Alegre in the south of Brazil where Yannick Bestaven leads by 320 miles to near Tasmania where Sébastien Destremau the back marker is, the fleet spans 7,126 miles ...
