Vendée Globe

Speeds have picked up among the top seven or eight boats as the trade winds back more a few degrees. Since this morning the leaders’ compass courses have dropped about 15 degrees and the pace has jumped to between 16 and 17 knots, an increase of five or six knot

Easing into this first Loïck Peyron has just reported that the breeze has indeed become more favourable even if the seas are still choppy.  He has said it is wet out on deck and the wind is up and down but averaging around 20 knots. They are reaching now as wind is further from left than forecast.  He said he ‘feels in Olympic form, in perfect harmony with my boat.’

Peyron has made a small loss, just 5.9 miles to the chasing Seb Josse (BT), largely because he was first to bear away and hence diverge very slightly from the theoretical route south, which of course does not take account of the real time weather. 
Gitana’s speed is nearly 17 knots this morning, now steering a few degrees west of due south.

Mike Golding, by virtue of his westerly position, has lost some of his early mileage gain. He is converging now with the tracks of the five boats to weather of him and is likely to be still sailing a narrower angle, hence Ecover 3’s VMG is still about a knot less than those to his west. He sits sixth, 14 miles behind Armel Le Cléac’h (Brit Air).

Marc Guillemot (Safran) has now passed Dominique Wavre (Temenos II) for 11th place,  and is just two miles behind Brian Thompson, GBR, (Bahran Team Pindar).

 

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