Vendée Globe

Michel Desjoyeaux has cranked up the pace again on Foncia as he heads for the exit door, his Indian Ocean rope trick complete, ready to pass into the smoother Pacific. He was just 50 miles from the Pacific highway this evening.\

With his advance now 59.1 miles, the biggest lead he has had since he took the lead on the mid-morning rankings on Wednesday, Desjoyeaux is putting the squeeze on his rivals again.

Tonight he is making 20.7 knots to Jourdain’s 15.5 knots, and while his perception of the iniquities of the Indian Ocean may be coloured by his own considerable profit, Desjoyeaux considers he has the speed to leave his rivals at will:

“In the descent of the Atlantic I was running the routing and the polars towards the maximum. Right now I’m running them at about 90 or even 85% so as I can stick to some of the others’ speeds. If I see that someone is really pushing, I accelerate and if ever I see that someone is easing off the pace, I do likewise… I use the routing to make a mathematical comparison of what’s happening on the water. It wasn’t my thing before I started doing that but now it’s all down to common sense!” he maintains.

Meantime Jean-Pierre Dick is battling back into the race with his re-born rudders. Paprec-Virbac 2 is making a more healthy 15.3 knots as he loops more south to re-join the fray, lying seventh he has 441 miles to make back if he is to catch Vincent Riou, next above him in sixth.

Steve White has been having a rough time over the last 36 hours, battling pilot issues. He has spent periods near stopped today trying to sort them out, and appears to have done so.

“ The pilot is giving me some grief - I either spend my time on the edge of my seat waiting to wipe out, or wiped out, boat on it's side, ballast the wrong side etc.......not good in 35 knots which is when it happened this morning. But, I think we've finally got to the bottom of it, just going to sail slowly so I can rest for an hour and wait for the sea state to die down, then I'll stop again as I commission both pilots, then I should get going again I hope.” White reported this evening.

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