Heading for a well earned 14th Romain Attanasio (Fortinet-Best Western) is due in later this morning, sailing his final miles in light winds in chilly, frosty conditions with some lingering sea mist. On the menu for Romain is prime rib no doubt washed down with a hint of champagne. Then it will be Yannick Bestaven (Maître CoQ V) welcomed up the mythical channel. Out of the race since his retirement at the beginning of January, the winner of the 2020 edition has sailed all the way back solo and will take a huge satisfaction from getting all the way to Port Olonna.
But behind them the battle is still so very open. Four boats are close and trying all the time to stay at full speed ahead. If Damien Seguin (Groupe APICIL, 15th) best placed this morning the can still have their say before the finish, including Switzerland’s Alan Roura on Hublot (16th):
This finish for is really is worthy of this Vendée Globe, an intense and exciting round the world race. If we were to set off from Les Sables d’Olonne and sail around Belle-Île in our IMOCAs, we might not even finish so grouped together, it's just crazy, it's crazy intense! I want to do well, and so I need to be on it all the time. Lots of things can still happen, and the difference is the passion we put into it!
Roura, the wee Swiss guy with the big heart is about to complete his third round the world in a row has no AIS and needs to keep a real lookout all the time.
“The intensity, it makes you forget the fatigue. What keeps me going is really making my boat safe. Sometimes, I have little moments of weakness like just now I was listening to music, I fell asleep for 5 minutes, but it was 5 minutes too long. My alarm is no longer of any use, its noise is so integrated into my head that I no longer hear it, so I do without an alarm clock and have been doing so for a while! But I still have energy left!”
And the leading foilers in this group need to keep pushing as Benjamin Ferré (Monnoyeur – Duo For a Job, 17th) and Tanguy Le Turquais (Lazare, 18th), whose boats with straight daggerboards may yet themselves at a speed advantage if the wind drops.
Further south, Antoine Cornic reached the trade winds, but has had a "rough sea" and wind up to 34 knots:
“ Everything suffers. The guy, the boat, it's not easy, and it's full of weed and my rudders can't be lifted so I'm dragging a lot of them, it's straining the pilot. This entry into the North Atlantic, it's not that easy!”
For Belgian Denis Van Weynbergh (D'Ieteren Group, 34th) it was a hard Saturday in the famous cold front of Cabo Frio,
This afternoon I had squalls up to 45 knots, then I had calm, then now I have wind coming from the South when I should have it from the North, so I'm trying to sail to the East... It's very tiring, very complicated. My life on board during calm weather involves a lot of adjustments, taking the helm sometimes, a few meltdowns too because it gets on your nerves! That's life on board when there's calm weather... We had a phase the day before yesterday, one yesterday, one today, I imagine there will be one tomorrow or even the day after. In fact, when there's no wind, that's when we work the hardest!
