Vendée Globe

On board Virbac-Paprec, Jean-Pierre Dick seems to have decided to round the Azores via the west. Ahead of him, Dominique Wavre extended his lead over Sébastien Josse to 64 miles.

800 miles. That’s the difference between the direct route and the route chosen by Jean-Pierre Dick (Virbac-Paprec), in sixth place, 1839 miles from the finish. Jean-Pierre has been forced to prolong his journey to stay downwind and gert around a ridge of high pressure stretching to the Azores. Consequently, Jean-Pierre could be the only competitor in this Vendée Globe to round the Spanish archipelago via the west. The advantage of this option is that his boat is in general sticking above 14 knots (5.7 knots VMG). 480 miles from the finish, Dominique Wavre (Temenos) and Sébastien Josse (VMI), 64 miles astern, only have two or three nights left at sea. The two yachtsmen are on direct course for Les Sables and were 200 miles north west of Cape Finisterre this evening. During the day tomorrow (Sunday), they will enter the Bay of Biscay for their final 36 hours of racing. In ninth place, Bruce Schwab (Ocean Planet) should be crossing the Equator around midnight. Tomorrow, there will only be four competitors in the Southern Hemisphere. The first of them will be Benoît Parnaudeau (Max Havelaar-Best Western) is still struggling with light, variable winds off Porto Seguro in Brazil. The trade winds have not turned up. LLB

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