The forecasts have been predicting lighter conditions for the two front-runners from this weekend with a high developing in their path, but both Michel Desjoyeaux (Foncia) and Roland Jourdain (Veolia Environnement) have already slowed down this morning averaging only around ten knots.
That still puts them on the average speed they need to maintain to reach Les Sables in under 87 days, which was the time Vincent Riou took in 2004-2005. They are currently on the edge of the anticyclone with 12-knot SW'ly winds and are aiming to head north-eastwards to avoid the centre of the system, which has developed off
The trade winds seem to be in place to the north of 30°S, some 700 miles ahead of the duo. Even if the speeds have slowed, they do not seem to be stuck in light winds, but simply reducing their daily distance to around 240 miles. By the end of this coming weekend, we can even imagine that their speeds will be picking up again in the E'ly trade winds.
Armel Le Cléac'h is continuing at better speeds for the moment, sailing closer to the wind and having passed to the east of the Falklands, just a dozen or so miles off Port Stanley. The skipper of Brit Air is trying to round the high by heading north-eastwards and is making gains of the two frontrunners. Over the next few days he is likely to be in an enviable position narrowing the gap on the leader.
The challenge for Samantha Davies (Roxy) and Marc Guillemot (Safran) is to leave the Pacific behind. With 700 miles to go to
Brian Thompson (Bahrain Team Pindar) is about 180 miles ahead of Arnaud Boissières (Akéna Vérandas) and Dee Caffari (Aviva) and all three are are going to be diving down to the Furious Fifties to avoid the calms ahead of them. Caffari has reduced her deficit to her French rival to seven miles this morning and has been consistently a knot quicker. They are less than 10 miles apart in terms of lateral distance.
Steve White (Toe in the Water) has had the bad luck to be caught in the tentacles of the high and he was taken prisoner for a whole day. This morning he appears to have escaped, but is not out of the woods yet, as the high is moving eastwards towards the next gate.
In the middle of the Pacific a tropical storm is building, and while Raphaël Dinelli (Fondation Océan Vital) and Norbert Sedlacek (Nauticsport-Kapsch) are not likely to be affected Rich Wilson (Great American III) could well find himself in the path of this thundery low-pressure area. Austrian skipper Sedlacek has reported damage to the top of his mainsail track and is forced to sail with one reef.
