The skipper Charlie Dalin. – AFP
6. 857 miles. This is the distance that separated the leader from the Vendée Globe , Yannick Bestaven , from the finish line of the race at 9 a.m. It is also more or less the gap between this same Bestaven and the red lantern, Sébastien Destremau (on the verge of abandonment). At the dawn of sound 17 th day in front of the fleet, the skipper on Maître Coq, who crossed the longitude of Cape Horn Saturday afternoon, see the light at the end of the tunnel. But we must not be fooled by appearances, the road is still long, if only because the sea will be calmer than in the Great South and the changes of pace are numerous. And behind, Dalin, Loud and Seguin are on the lookout for the slightest error.
The classification at 9am
1) Yannick Bestaven (Maître Coq IV)
2) Charlie Dalin (Apivia), at 117 nm
3) Thomas Rettant (LinkedOut), at 310 nm
4) Damien Seguin (APICIL Group), at 477 nm
5) Benjamin Dutreux (Omia – Water Family), at 481 nm
Charlie Dalin in turn crosses Cape Horn
After Master Rooster, Apivia has become the second boat in the Vendée Globe 2016 – 20 to leave the Pacific. Charlie Dalin passed Cape Horn longitude on Sunday at 5 a.m. 21, French time. And he should not be too unhappy to be done with the South Seas, which caused him so much trouble and cost him a first place yet so solid. 52 j 12 h and 18 ‘to reach Cape Horn, it’s not bad: it’s better than Le Cam in 1303 or Desjoyeaux in 2004. But it’s worse than Gabart in 2008 (52 days) and especially the Le Cléac’h rocket in 2016 (47 days). The next to cross the last milestone of the race will a priori be Thomas Rettant and Damien Seguin, who sail almost hand in hand.
Alan Roura’s flashback
The Swiss on La Fabrique knows big problems with the keel hydraulic system in the Great South. And this is not the first time that bad luck has surprised him in this part of the world. Four years earlier, he had hit an ofni, forcing him to play Builder Bob in the front of his boat. He returns to this episode in a rather nice mini-comic.
– La Fabrique (@AlanRoura)
January 2, 2021