Ari Huusela has the honour of closing the course on this 9th Vendée Globe. He is the last to finish the race some 37 days after the first boats. He is just as much of a hero having spent the most time at sea and his finish will mark a suitably magical end to a magnificent human and sporting story. Friday, around 10 a.m local time Ari, the Finnish airline pilot, will bring this fabulous 2020-2021 edition to a close.
With 130 nautical miles to go to the finish line of the Vendée Globe, the 25th and final skipper Ari Huusela has made what should be his final tack of the race and the 58 year old Finnish skipper is this afternoon concentrating on tidying his boat and having everything in perfect shape for his arrival across the finish line which should be – he believes – around 0900hrs UTC Friday morning, 1000hrs local time.
Ari Huusela says Sunday was a down day, no doubt because after the finish of Alexia Barrier he was the only skipper left at sea, but today as the Les Sables d'Olonne finish line draws ever closer he is back to being Super Happy Ari. The sun is out, STARK is moving steadily and Ari is on course....
Ari Huusela writes this Sunday: "Amazingly beautiful night with good progress. I have only 900NM left and 27 000 miles behind me. Se that is 16 weeks done and 112 days racing. My routing tells me this morning that I my ETA can be on Friday 5th March at around 1500hrs in the afternoon, so I still have five days left to enjoy the rest of my race. On the way there’ll be two more light wind areas and both are expected to take around a day and slow me down. If it were not for that I could finish in three days. It’s starting to feel colder now, water temperature is only 16,5°C now.
All good on board. Let’s enjoy this Sunday.
Alexia Barrier's press conference was lively and informative as she told the media, friends, sponsors and sailors about her Vendee Globe while pledging to be back in 2024 with a faster boat.
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