After a not easy night for the challenging conditions of wind and sea, the race continues.
First of all, as you can see from the picture, the limit of detection of the Iceberg has been added to the graphics, which as seen is definitely northern than Isle Crozet and Kerguelen and this accounts intuitively the opportunity of adding the required gate “Amsterdam”, placed to force the fleet to the North and not put them in risk to cross Iceberg.
The leading group is still led by Le Cleach that is pointing straight to the next gate “Crozet”, with an average of 16.6 kts in the last 24h. Just behind, only slightly more to the south, Gabart (18.2 Kts in 24h) and J.P.Dick (17.4 Kts in 24h) followed by just 15 and 35 Nm of detachment. A close fight, unbelievable, after 25 days of racing they are still there, half an hour of detachment from each other!
In third and fourth place, still firmly attached to the head of the train, we find Stamm (18 Kts in 24h) and Thomson (19.1 Kts in 24h) who preferred to maintain a southern course in the last hours, in fact they are fairly low to Crozet gate than the first three.
The separation that had already profiled among this group and the other is intended to deepen. In fact, the separation of the sixth (13.3 Kts Golding in 24h) which is now 600 Nm distant, is likely to increase because he, LeCam and Wavre are stuck in a bubble of low winds that the first have not seen, and they will take a while to jump out; we must consider that at these speeds with low average spend over 24 hours, one can loose in one shot more than 150 Nm to the leader.
Then, further back, there is really a hole, with Sansò that has given much to do, without success, to remain attached to those before and now is in some difficulty and will also be approached by the pursuers. However, its 8 Kts in 24h against 17 Kts of Boissieres not seem to protect him by the arrival of the pursuers. That group, completed by De Broc and De Lamotte, browse, however, from 1.400 to 1.800 Nm from the first, an abyss, and a bit at a time they will arrive at the gate Aguilles, that the leader have passed a couple of days ago.
At the rear, Alessandro Di Benedetto (11.5 Kts in 24h) is carrying out his race, about 2.500 Nm from the first, and the gap continues to increase, and must cross the island of Tristan da Cunha. Di Benedetto has 700 Nm of detachment from the penultimate (Lamotte) and has yet to enter the Indian Ocean. Let’s look at him and hope everything goes fine. Alessandro is carrying on his race, though not in a competitive way, at least by now giving us many smiles and good feelings: a different Vendée Globe, very human, who deserves all the respect, perhaps closer to the real world rather than what you can imagine seeing the pictures and looking at the pictures of sea monsters that are in the top positions.
What to Expect? We said, the first group has a great advantage, and it will take some surprises that someone from behind will be able to engage them. Behind, Sansò is probably doomed in its run-up to those in front and must be happy, for now, only to make the race in the group behind. Still, the presence of the new gate of Amsterdam is a limit, as we have already pointed out, at the possible strategies, defining an almost obligatory route, but this gate was for the Comitee an inevitable choice, due to the iceberg presence, and the organization has put first the safety of the skippers in making this choice. The Vendée is long, very long, let’s see…
A short clip from Alessandro, sailing on 50Kts wind gusts in the Southern OceanVideo di Alessandro