As he left the Pacific, the Breton was 602 miles ahead. Two days later, when the British boat entered the Atlantic, the gap had increased to 642 miles.
Everyone thought it was all over and that the climb back up the Atlantic was a formality with PRB the clear winner. In the next few days, things were to change dramatically…

On 16th January, PRB's speed dropped off.
A first sign. A huge high was blocking the way between the two continents. The second alert was due to a problem with equipment: the mainsail track broke at first reef. After spending a few hours up his mast, the skipper managed to carry out temporary repairs… On 24th January at 22° South, the wind finally returned, but the result was frightening for the Frenchman.
Kingfisher was now only 72 miles behind PRB. On the same day, Ellen finished repairing her gennaker. The wind may not have been not the strongest, but was enough to push her along on her Owen Clark designed boat at a decent speed. In her log, Ellen noted on 26th January «The tactics aren’t very complicated. The further west we go, the quicker we’ll get through (the Doldrums). On the satellite photos, the route looked extremely clear. I was 40 miles west of Mich, so everything looked good. If ever I had a chance to overtake him, it would be now…»

During the next two days, Ellen had a number of problems forcing her up the mast several times and her tiredness got the better of her, in particular the loss of 40 miles in longitude. This really made her angry. Yet in the rankings on the morning of 28th January, the gap in terms of distance to the finish had fallen further to just 26 miles! When Kingfisher crossed the Equator at 9h 07’ precisely, Ellen offered a few biscuits to Neptune and gave him her warmest thanks: «Thank you for putting Michel into a wind hole. I know that isn’t nice of me, but thanks all the same.» At the same time, the speedo on PRB indicated 1 knot as he headed north-westwards. Michel tried to reassure everyone and his tone changed. On the radio session, he exclaimed: «Maybe if I climbed to the top of the mast, I’d see Ellen.» During the afternoon, the gap narrowed still further. Only ten miles between them. Michel keeping calm continued to head north-westwards to get out of the Doldrums. It did not matter that the immediate gain was negligible.

On 29th January in the 10h rankings, Kingfisher lead the rankings 5 miles ahead of PRB. The British boat was 1 degree further east than the French boat on a course of 39° , while her rival was sailing on a bearing of 334°. In other words, one was heading straight for Les Sables, while the other one was on a much longer course. «When Mark (Turner) told me the news, I managed to smile, but I was so tired I could hardly speak.»

Ellen was not going to dwell on it, but she knew that this place at the front would not be hers for long. Later on, when the wind shifted and Kingfisher had to change tack, PRB had already regained a lead of forty miles. With a clear vision, the British sailor wrote: «My boat is going to have to go a little bit quicker to win back a couple of miles each day.»

Epilogue. This historic moment, when Ellen took the lead would in fact only lasted until the next rankings a few hours later. Fate was to intervene. Approaching the trade winds, Kingfisher hit a UFO, which smashed her daggerboard and damaged a rudder.
Extremely bad luck for this British boat, which performed incredibly upwind.
Ellen would would keep quiet about the incident. Approaching the Azores, Ellen got to within 15 miles of her rival sailing to her west, but once again the distance to the finish did not really reflect the true situation on the water. Michel was on the right side and would leave Ellen behind, suffering this time from a broken stay.
At the finish in Les Sables d’Olonne, there was more than a day between the two boats, but this would not stop the revelation of the Vendée Globe from becoming a media star.

Patrice Carpentier