This evening Desjoyeaux is making 15.1 knots to Bilou’s 11.6, while the second placed skipper has been slowed by gusty, squally weather interspersed with lighter winds. Indeed Jourdain today likened the conditions to the Doldrums, so the weather systems are certainly not stacking up in his favour. Desjoyeaux is passing inside, to the west, of the island of Fernando de Noronha this evening while Jourdain is at Salvador.

But, in turn the divisions in the South Atlantic are becoming ever wider. Armel Le Cléac’h in third is now over 1000 miles behind Desjoyeaux when 48 hours ago that margin was closer to 800 miles. Off Uruguay fourth and fifth, Sam Davies, GBR (Roxy) and Marc Guillemot (Safran) have been dealing with a cocktail of stormy little low pressure systems which, as Davies put it yesterday, are ‘spewing off the South American coast’. She now has Guillemot about 400m to her SWW, inshore although the pair are back on converging course. 

Now over 350 miles north of the Falklands, Brian Thompson has been slow again this evening, as he and his pursuing duo, Arnaud Boissières in seventh and eighth placed Dee Caffari consider the effects of the high pressure system ahead of them. Thompson has dealt with his engine problem, moving the hydraulic pump a little further away from the engine, something he accomplished last night. And behind him, 350 miles or so from Cape Horn, Steve White has managed to deal with the problem with his mainsail headboard car. The car, he said today, had basically exploded and his mainsail had been left to fall slowly. In effect he replaced the cars with other ones, but had to take all the track cars off, with all the balls falling out, before re-hoisting the main with the damaged cars still at the top of the mast.

“So that’s my things. Oh and the water-maker has been quietly poisoning me so I have had a bit of an upset stomach these past 36 hours as well.” Reported White, 350 miles to Cape Horn, today.

Rich Wilson, 5225 miles behind the leader on Great American III, passed the final ice gate in the Pacific today, battling on in big 5-7m swells and unsettled 30-45 knots winds. He has 1700 miles to sail to Cape Horn. Behind him, they may have formed an Franco-Austrian entente, but the lead has changed again between Raphael Dinelli and Norbert Sedlacek and it is the Viennese skipper who is now 12^th.

Michel Desjoyeaux (Foncia): “I’ve been busy tidying up.  Not out on deck as it’s wet all the time, but inside.  I’ve been doing my little inventory.  (Talking about his lead of 400 miles) Sometimes you need to believe me.  When you’re talking about sailing, you need to compare times, but we all have to go through the same places, so that’s fine when looking at the Equator or the Horn, but otherwise it’s a bit difficult to make any sort of comparison.  We have software on board to work that out.  It’s not necessarily a good reflection of the gap between us.  Once again I’m faster than Bilou, so the gap will widen, until he reaches this speed and then, I may be slowed down in the Doldrums tomorrow.  They are looking a bit unusual for the season.  I would expect to get through at this time of year without too many problems, but it’s going to be rather more complicated.  I started looking at the satellite photos yesterday.  We’re going to be slowed down a bit, but we’ll get through and it may be easier for Bilou.”

“On the other side, the trade winds are fairly strong.  I’m looking ahead to beyond the Doldrums and in theory, there will be a westerly flow.  Strategically, it’s not very complex.  There’s no way through via the east.  This should confirm the current order in the rankings, unless there is a mechanical problem or something that cannot be predicted.  So it’s a question of preserving my lead, making sure we get through and keeping focused, as if you are not as vigilance, that’s when problems happen.  There are no other situations ahead for me to lose sleep over.  You can say what you like about the forecasts, but we can look ahead about twelve days, so we can imagine finishing on 1st or 2nd February.  So that’s a fortnight from now, so there could be a change in the weather at the end of this period, but it’s looking very clear.” 

“The pressure on me isn’t increasing.  Since I’ve been in the lead, that’s been my number one problem.  You can see what I have achieved up until now and it would be a pity not to finish it off like this, but you know that in life there are things you cannot foresee.  There are things you can control and others you can’t.  I’m alone on my boat and can’t check everything.  You do what you can and I have managed for two and a half months.  I hope I can continue for another fortnight until we get back in Les Sables d’Olonne.  I’m hoping there won’t be any technical problems aboard the boat.  But I haven’t seen any warning lights and everything is indicating green for now.  So I’m not too worried about that.”

New ENG audio on www.vendeeglobe.org Steve White, GBR (Toe in the Water), Brian Thompson, GBR, (Bahrain Team Pindar), Michel Desjoyeaux (Foncia) in English, and video Dee Caffari, GBR, (Aviva).