During today's radio session Brian Thompson (Pindar) talked about his current race within the race.  This afternoon, he is in eleventh place between Dominique Wavre and Marc Guillemot.

"We’ve got a little race on here with Temenos and Safran, and all day yesterday I was with Temenos, we had a very good sail in similar conditions to this.
How do we compare to Safran? We’re very different. We’ve been quite similar over the past couple of days, Safran has probably been a touch faster. She’s been a little bit more in the east, which may have helped her but there’s not much to choose between them.
I remember at the start Safran as well was very fast and she’s a particularly good boat upwind, which is surprising when you look at those curved foils, but maybe that long chine helps her go upwind as well. But it’s going very fast a lot of the time with Ecover as the boat with the highest averages."

 

Cheminées Poujoulat crossed the Equator today at 16 h 35' 31'' (UTC).  Bernard Stamm restarted the race from Les Sables d'Olonne on 13th November and in spite of experiencing tricky conditions in the Bay of Biscay, where he was slowed down, the total time it has taken the Swiss sailor to reach the Equator is very similar to that of the race leaders, as Cheminées Poujoulat only took four hours longer than Gitana Eighty to cover this stretch.

Yann Eliès (Générali) is in 6th place 67.6 miles from the leader this evening, just over six miles ahead of Mike Golding.  
"There is a tiny window to get through at the St. Helena toll gate three or four days from now.  We're going to have to line up behind the leaders, so no one gets away.  If it was to close on those chasing on behind, once in the south, we should be achieving good speeds of around fifteen knots and it would be difficult after to claw their way back...He's (Loïck Peyron), setting the pace and leading the way at the front.  He is really impressive, because he never eases off in light or heavy weather.  With his pace and his precision in all the adjustments, he is truly impressive."

Dominique Wavre (Temenos) is currently in 12th place, 253 miles from the leader sailing to the west of Brian Thompson and Marc Guillemot.  "We still have at least two days in these types of conditions and then the zone of high pressure seems to want to shift a little to the east, which would let us get past. It seems plausible that the frontrunners may be slowed at that point. If we’re to believe the routing, we may reduce the deficit by a hundred miles prior to the South African gate, but these forecasts have to be taken with a pinch of salt. The weather models aren’t always very pertinent when it comes to the movement of areas of high pressure. As a result it’s very difficult to make reliable forecasts. Though the zone of high pressure is moving slowly, I’m managing to slip along down its western edge and gain a bit of ground. If it shifts quickly I’ll have lost some ground so I’m taking a bit of a gamble on the reliability of the weather models. I’m trying to kick up some spray towards the anticyclone so that it shifts across at the right point! "

 

Loïck Peyron (Gitana 80) is still in the lead this afternoon, 13 miles ahead of Sébastien Josse.  However, in spite of his sterling performance, even the leader finds the present sailing conditions rather unpleasant...

"Last night, there were storm squalls everywhere… as a result of a small neighbouring cold front! The wind is still fluctuating just as much as before in terms of strength, but the squalls are gradually giving way to greyish skies. I haven’t got sunshine yet, far from it, but we may well be heading towards a clearer spell. For the past 24 hours, the sea really hasn’t been very kind to us. On the nose and crossed… the seas are making life aboard complicated. You constantly have to hang on and watch every move you make in the boat. The current sea state isn’t as big or as powerful as that which we encountered in the Bay of Biscay during the storm of the first hours of racing, but it is considerably more unpleasant. It’s heeling, slamming and wet!   The past 24 hours certainly haven’t inspired me to take any long siestas in my bunk. However, that’s not such a bad thing as the numerous shifts in the wind require my presence on deck, which would leave me little time to sleep anyway. We have a real barrier in front of us! For the time being, we don’t have any choice,   but you still have to keep a constant eye on the zone of high pressure and respond quickly should the latter start to weaken."

 

"Sailing quickly with the seas coming straight at us is tough. You really have to be on your toes, as the boat can go above twenty knots at times… You need to ease out the sails to slow down.  The wind is between 17 and 23 knots and PRB is averaging around 17 knots. I lost some ground in the night, as I had a problem with the wind vane at the top of the mast: I had to take care of the boat, change the pilot over, switch over the vane… We're taking the long way around.  It's quite a detour around the western edge of the high-pressure area.  But that is only what the forecast is telling us for now and we cannot rely 100% on it.  The changes in the trade winds are quite surprising: it's a bit stressful and they're really shaking us up.» Vincent Riou (PRB) on today's radio session.