With the dismasting of Loïck Peyron’s Gitana Eighty on their minds, there is no sign of any obvious let up in the intensity of the battle among the leaders of the Vendée Globe this morning. Some 430 miles west of the Kerguelen Islands, deep in the south Indian Ocean, there is now less than 40 miles between the leading five boats as Jean-Pierre Dick makes a small gain to lead by 30.4 miles from Roland Jourdain who is up to second place again. But there is now just nine miles between second and fifth place Michel Desjoyeaux (Foncia).
Foncia remains consistently quick sailing a course which is not extreme. Desjoyeaux chose to go north sharply late on Tuesday after the evening poll, joining Seb Josse in the north and has moved forward progressively. He is second fastest to Dick this morning and has been waging a speed battle with Mike Golding, GBR, (Ecover 3) for fourth position, one and a half miles behind the British skipper.
With his route in the south, Bernard Stamm, SUI,(Cheminées Poujoulat) is chasing down Brian Thompson, GBR, (Bahrain Team Pindar) just 14.2 miles behind and gaining close to five miles overnight, challenging for Thompson’s 13th place. The Bahrain Team Pindar skipper reported 25 knots of breeze last night.
In 18th place Steve White, GBR, (Toe in the Water) appears to be heading north east again on a course that will pass more towards easterly end of the second Ice Gate and seems to be losing miles on the pack he is chasing at the moment.
The next low pressure system is presently over the Prince Edward islands, or the equivalent of where Dee Caffari, GBR (Aviva) and Arnaud Boissières (Akena Verandas) are, and will move over the fleet to reach the Kerguelens early morning tomorrow, while a bigger low is due to reach the Kerguelens Sunday yielding 40+ plus knots of wind.
