Vendée Globe

After more than a week of upwind sailing, the leaders will finally be getting around the St. Helena high.  The easterly wind will ease off during the afternoon and particularly this evening, before it backs ENE'ly early in the night and then, N'ly later dropping off to 10 knots. It will only be at that moment that the leaders will be able to make their way to the south of the high pressure area. As they make their way across, the speeds and courses will differ according to their position on the water, as close to the centre of the high the winds are very variable  in strength and direction. The result of the positioning of the past few days will be seen in the rankings on Sunday evening or Monday morning.
In spite of that, all the skippers should make their way far enough south early tomorrow to reach the disturbed flow and thus sail downwind afterwards.
The situation looks the same for the group chasing on behind with the high being crossed in roughly the same place, even if the high has moved slowly north-eastwards.  For the competitors further north, they are going to have to deal with the thundery low developing off the coast of Brazil, which will be moving south-eastwards and then south in the coming days.
Sylvain Mondon
Météo-France