The final miles feel the hardest

Beyou is now very nearly 100 miles ahead this morning. According to a video sent yesterday afternoon Goodchild was starting to make a repair to the mainsail which is torn right across from leech to luff but there has been no further update and he is still slower than those around him. Nico Lunven (HOLCIM PRB) is advancing well and  has passed Paul Meilhat (Biotherm) for sixth. 

Same agenda, different timing 

Eight hundred miles to the SW the second group have much more amenable conditions and are making good speeds but their aim is to be in before a bad low which is threatening them for the Bay of Biscay, close to the finish. In tenth Vendéen Benjamin Dutreux reports early this morning from on board Guyot Environnement, “I have between 12 and 15 knots of wind, it's a little lighter than what is forecast on the files. It should get stronger, right now it's building so it's cool! We should have 15-25 knots in the next few days. With our group we try to link up with the next depression, from depression to depression that should allow us to climb towards the North, with quite a few transition phases so we will still have to be on it! All the way until the finish it will not be easy. We have to get in before the last depression as the the one behind is really big! I hope that all my little group will finish before that, normally on the routings it passes us. But we know there is often a world of difference between forecast and reality" 

Across the Equator 

Isabelle Joschke (MACSF) and Damien Seguin (Groupe Apicil) have returned across the Equator in the early hours of the morning, Isa at 0404hrs and Damien 1hr 33 mins later.

Seguin speaks of their Doldrums this morning, “It's not that bad, the conditions aren't very complicated for sailing but there's still a bit of a lack of wind! I'm currently in the tropical convergence zone, which for us now this year of being very south which is quite rare, even at this time of year. It's not easy to move quickly, there aren't necessarily big squalls, but there are a lot of areas with very random winds, it's hard to sail in a straight line, it zigzags a lot and we're not doing great averages, but we're still moving forward! I tell myself that every mile gained is a mile less towards the finish, and I pass the time like that but the days are long and it's super super hot on board the boat, and it's hard! I take showers at least two or three times a day to freshen up, it feels good, straight from buckets of sea water! It hasn't been too bad for me in the last few days, Before I was with Alan and Jean and it's the first time since the start of this Vendée Globe that I've managed to get to the right side of a weather system, and not see the doors close in front of me, so I tried to work hard upwind in the strong wind, to get in front of this windless zone that set up just behind me, so I got through, but I got through, and not the other two! So I was really happy! 

Speed is an antidote for disappointment  

And Swiss skipper Alan Roura is enjoying better speeds in 20th place but echoes Seguin’s disappointment that their Vendée Globes are respectively so different to their 2020-21 races on which Seguin finished seventh and was actually first daggerboard boat to cross the finish line and Roura was 17th,

"Right now I am at 23-24 knots speed, straight up the route. So I am getting closer to the Doldrums I am trying to find an escape, I would still like to stay as far east as possible because the angle would be faster afterwards for the ascent to the Azores. 400 miles in 24 hours feels good, I am happy to see the alarms ringing, and to be in race mode, even if I have kept pushing and have never given up on anything, but the fact of feeling that it is moving forward, seeing the waves go by, that luck is changing a little, it feels good… Is it going to help me get back on track? I'm trying not to make too many predictions I'm focused on the boat, on the clouds, but it's good for morale! Since passing the Horn, I've spent 80% in calm weather, so it's good to move forward again. The problem with the Doldrums is the exit angle. I'm going to try to take a more northerly route than the western group, so as not to make a big loop when leaving. Now, let's say how it's going to go. It's very southerly, so it's complicated at the moment! What reassures me is that in the east the Doldrums are smaller than in the west, I dare to hope that it passes quickly, but there will be storms, it's going to be a real Doldrums, but hey, I should get back in the morning...