Since the Spaniard, Didac Costa, made the transition into the southern hemisphere, the latter seems to be undergoing great upheaval. Indeed, with less than a month until the southern summer (21 December), the South Atlantic and the Indian Ocean have not managed to strike a balance and they’ll have to await the middle of the week for the major weather systems to settle into position… In the meantime, the twenty-five solo sailors still on the racetrack are making headway to different tunes due to the chaotic tempos.
From Martin Vaz to Prince Edward
Whilst the two back runners are already negotiating E’ly tradewinds of around fifteen knots, the main pack is virtually on a beat preparing to stumble once more into a pocket of high pressure coming off Cabo Frio that will settle into position at 30°S, right across the track to the Cape of Good Hope. Any hopes of crossing this hurdle are fading fast for these eleven solo sailors, who are likely to be in for a lousy and very tedious weekend that may even hang over into the start of the week when they eventually reach 35°S! Kito de Pavant has really gone round the houses to bypass this zone, and despite two laborious days off Cabo Frio, his passage is looking to be obstacle free, at least as far as South Africa. Indeed, he’s hooked onto the back of one low that links onto another and he’ll just have to hang on in there now…
There’s some serious stalling meanwhile for Jean Le Cam: the Breton has slipped off the back of the front and hasn’t got a sniff of breeze, while Thomas Ruyant and Jean-Pierre Dick are powering along at the leading edge of this Argentinean low. Le Cam will have to dive back down to the SE to latch onto some more consistent breeze around a hundred miles down the track. He should be able to put pedal to the metal at that point, but he won’t go unscathed, losing several dozen miles against the central pairing. In contrast, Yann Eliès is in a much better position, merrily hurtling along with the Argentinean system making over sixteen knots and making ground on the Meilhat-Beyou pairing, which has also found pressure again, but will have the added stress of skirting the ice exclusion zone for a good while yet!
Rich pickings?
As for the podium, there is already some fairly hefty separation here now as Sébastien Josse is battling through very moderate, shifty and predominantly W’ly winds over 300 miles back from the leaders, forced to put in a series of gybes as he waits to hitch a ride on the Argentinean low some time tonight or in the early hours! As for the top two, the duel is very much on now as Armel Le Cléac’h has managed to break away from Alex Thomson, the former opting for a route to the SE, while the Briton heads to the NE. However, a transition will colour today’s proceedings, meaning that they’re both set to stall whilst the chasing pack is finally able to eat into their lead over the next two days.
Dominic Bourgeois
Ranking from 26 November 2016
Source: vendee globe
