Dia 70 en la Vendée Globe

Day 70, Leaders: 90 miles to pass Fernando de Noronha

Coasting to victory?

1500 HRS GMT. Rankings

1 . Michel Desjoyeaux (Foncia) at 3526.6 miles to finish
2 . Roland Jourdain (Veolia Environnement) at 484.7 miles from first place
3 . Armel Le Cléac’h (Brit Air) at 1065.4 miles from first place
4 . Sam Davies (Roxy) at 1852 miles from first place
5 . Marc Guillemot (Safran) at 2149 miles from first place
6 . Brian Thompson (Bahrain Team Pindar) at 2832.8miles from first place
7 . Arnaud Boissières (Akena Vérandas) at 2889 miles from first place
8 . Dee Caffari (Aviva) at 2926.1 miles from first place
9 . Steve White (Toe in the water) at 3849.7 miles from first place
10 . Rich Wilson (Great American III) at 5225.4 miles from first place
11 . Raphaël Dinelli (Fondation Océan Vital) at 6936.4 miles from first place
12 . Norbert Sedlacek (Nauticsport . Kapsch) at 6931.9 miles from first place

RDG . Vincent Riou (PRB). 3rd equal. 30 boats started.


IN SHORT WORDS

The lead of Michel Desjoyeaux (Foncia) is now 484.7 miles this afternoon over Roland Jourdain (Veolia Environnement).

Desjoyeaux has been averaging 3.5 knots faster than the second placed skipper.

In the next 24 hours the leader for 33 days should pass back into the Northern Hemisphere

After a hard day and night Steve White, GBR, (Toe in the Water) has resolved his problems with his mainsail head car and will be next to round Cape Horn, his first time ever at the lonely tip of South America.
White, who only took up sailing 10 years ago, lies in ninth place in his first Vendée Globe.
It’s been a tough day for Roland Jourdain. While he declared roundly this morning that the season for hunting down Michel Desjoyeaux is ‘open until early February’ the stark reality is that with a deficit of over 484 miles, he is starting to need the leader’s progress to be slowed by something other than the active and complex Doldrums which Mich Desj is heading into, which in turn are set to be followed by a North Atlantic that is showing signs of normal, typically organized Westerly airstreams.
This evening Desjoyeaux is making 15.1 knots to Bilou’s 11.6, while the second placed skipper has been slowed by gusty, squally weather interspersed with lighter winds. Indeed Jourdain today likened the conditions to the Doldrums, so the weather systems are certainly not stacking up in his favour. Desjoyeaux is passing inside, to the west, of the island of Fernando de Noronha this evening while Jourdain is at Salvador.
But, in turn the divisions in the South Atlantic are becoming ever wider. Armel Le Cléac’h in third is now over 1000 miles behind Desjoyeaux when 48 hours ago that margin was closer to 800 miles. Off Uruguay fourth and fifth, Sam Davies, GBR (Roxy) and Marc Guillemot (Safran) have been dealing with a cocktail of stormy little low pressure systems which, as Davies put it yesterday, are ‘spewing off the South American coast’. She now has Guillemot about 400m to her SWW, inshore although the pair are back on converging course.
Now over 350 miles north of the Falklands, Brian Thompson has been slow again this evening, as he and his pursuing duo, Arnaud Boissières in seventh and eighth placed Dee Caffari consider the effects of the high pressure system ahead of them. Thompson has dealt with his engine problem, moving the hydraulic pump a little further away from the engine, something he accomplished last night. And behind him, 350 miles or so from Cape Horn, Steve White has managed to deal with the problem with his mainsail headboard car. The car, he said today, had basically exploded and his mainsail had been left to fall slowly. In effect he replaced the cars with other ones, but had to take all the track cars off, with all the balls falling out, before re-hoisting the main with the damaged cars still at the top of the mast.
“So that’s my things. Oh and the water-maker has been quietly poisoning me so I have had a bit of an upset stomach these past 36 hours as well.” Reported White, 350 miles to Cape Horn, today.
Rich Wilson, 5225 miles behind the leader on Great American III, passed the final ice gate in the Pacific today, battling on in big 5-7m swells and unsettled 30-45 knots winds. He has 1700 miles to sail to Cape Horn. Behind him, they may have formed an Franco-Austrian entente, but the lead has changed again between Raphael Dinelli and Norbert Sedlacek and it is the Viennese skipper who is now 12th.