Less than 81 nautical miles left for Charlie Dalin to reach Cape Leeuwin after long periods slowed in light winds during the last three days of racing. Interrogated early this morning, he denied having any technical problems on board of IMOCA APIVIA:“I know there is speculation about me having technical issues but my only technical issue has been no wind. APIVIA is going well,” he asserted!
The leader’s elapsed time to Cape Leeuwin should be of the order of 34 ½ days, nearly six days outside of the outstanding record set on the last edition by Armel Le Cléac’h at 28 days 20 hours and 12 minutes. Le Cléac’h’s passage time back in December 2016 beat the previous record by 5 days and 14 hours.In 2012-2013 at Cape Leeuwin there were five hours and 49 minutes between the runaway duo Le Cléac’h and Francois Gabart. Alex Thomson was over one day and three hours behind.And in December 2016 there were five hours and 16 minutes between Le Cléac’h and Thomson. Today, there are less than 100 nautical miles between leader Dalin, Thomas Ruyant (LinkedOut), and Yannick Bestaven (Maître Coq IV). Jean Le Cam (Yes We Cam!) is 130 miles behind Bestaven, the next three skippers – Damien Seguin, Louis Burton and Benjamin Dutreux, are 40 miles apart. And at current speeds, there is less than a day or a little over 400 miles between the first and tenth boats. Louis Burton, who was second a week ago, 140 miles from leader Dalin, admitted today that his problems were more than problems with autopilot. The captain of Bureau Vallée 2 fell to sixth place. He explained,
“I still have the J2 which is working fine, but the small gennaker is in bad shape so I don’t have a lot of headsails. I also have energy problems which are holding me back quite a bit. I’ve got a hydro generator stuck down which actually slows it down a lot, but I don’t have much choice since I don’t have enough fuel to finish the rest of the race using my engine (to generate power). That’s an extra worry. The Finnish airline pilot Ari Huusela was the last Vendée Globe to cross the longitude of Cape of Good Hope today for 33 days and 22 hours after the start of Les Sables d’Olonne on Sunday, November 8. 10 and a half hours earlier, Cape of Good Hope was crossed by Jérémie Beyou. The Charal captain, who restarted nine days after the initial launch, had the pleasure of reaching one of the small goals he had set, to cross the Cape of Good Hope with the fleet. His elapsed time is 24 days 9 hours and 14 minutes, 15th place.
Provisional ranking, day 34, 14:00 UTC
1. Charlie Dalin – [ APIVIA ]—> 13,710.6 nm from the finish
2. Thomas Ruyant – [ LinkedOut ] —> 81.48 nm from the leader
3. Yannick Bestaven [Maître CoQ IV]—> 97.38 nm from the leader
4. Jean Le Cam [ Yes We Cam ! ] —> 222.23 nm from the leader
5. Damien Seguin [ Groupe Apicil ] —> 230.37 nm from the leader
Picture:Yannick Bestaven