Vendée Globe

Anne Liardet has been doing her utmost during the night to reach Les Sables d’Olonne and the Vendée Globe finishing line as quickly as possible, as she has to beat the tide to be able to enter the Port Olona harbour channel. As the yachtswoman was forecasting yesterday the north westerly wind has gradually veered to the north north east forcing her to head closer to the wind and round off her route a little earlier than planned. The easing off of the wind early this morning has also caused the boat’s speed to drop off, going from above 10 knots yesterday evening to just about scraping 8 knots this morning. Anne really wanted to offer the locals a great sight by arriving this afternoon before the 14.40 tide. After 119 days at sea, she may have to wait off the shore for the next tide at 22.00 to allow her to receive the applause of the crowds.

Less than 40 miles from the finish, Anne Liardet is having to deal with light variable winds, which forced her to work hard all night, taking in and shaking out reefs, in order to get up speed towards the finish. Unfortunately, her efforts don’t seem to have paid off. Problems with her pilot forced her earlier today to turn it off to try to fix the problem. Her ETA now looks likely to be around 16.00 – 17.00, after the tide. So it will be during the night that she will receive the homage of her children, friends and the locals. Raphaël Dinelli is continuing his climb back up after the Azores. He hopes to finish on Thursday or Friday. Pilot problems on board Benefic. Karen is at her wit’s end. Problems with her main pilot have forced her to spend hours doing repairs. The strong south easterly should allow her to glide along nicely towards the Azores, and the young yachtswoman would really like to make the most of these conditions.

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