Looking at the Vendée fleet this morning, none of them have winds as strong as were experiencing last night along the Welsh, English and Brittany coasts. At 0500 this morning the Bramble Bank was showing 42 knots with gusts over 50, and the Dover Straight 47 knots. By 0700 the wind at the Brambles Bank had halved.
Yannick Bestaven in Maître CoQ has increased his lead over Charlie Dalin’s Apivia by 12 miles, or half a knot average. They have winds from the North East at 18 and 14 knots respectively and Bestaven is making 10.5 knots on a direct course for Cape Horn 2,000 miles away. So no one is going to reach Cape Horn this year. These two are well ahead of the group of nine spread over 140 miles between them with Thomas Ruyant’s Linked Out in 3rd place, 322 miles behind the lead and Bureau Vallée 11th place 465 miles from the lead. Both have North Easterly winds but at 10 and 3 knots.
Pip Hare has 23 knots of northerly winds and is making the most of it, covering 70 miles in the last 4 hours and holding off 18th placed Charal, 400 miles behind but sailing slower in 37 knots of northerly wind. Charal has covered 53 miles in the same time period which would suggest the seas are slowing him down. Miranda Merron is still in 23rd with westerly winds of 21 knots and averaging 13 knots. The three tail enders have still to cross the Longitude of Cape Leeuwin but for some the objective is to complete the course, which will be no mean achievement in itself.