After the fleet encountered a slow descent of the north Atlantic, Charlie Dalin (MACIF Santé Prévoyance) now has the 10th edition of the Vendée Globe back close to record pace after his electrifying passage across the Indian Ocean, spurred on by his passage riding a malicious monster low pressure system.
This Saturday evening the well established race leader Dalin has just less than 800 nautical miles to the second of the solo round the world race’s second Great Cape and needs to cross that longitude by 08:14hrs UTC on the morning of Monday 9th December to break the 2016 record mark set by Armel Le Cléac’h who went on to set the 74d 3h 35 m course record. That requires an average of just around 19 knots which is possible but by no means certain given the number of gybes he may need to complete. Nonetheless from being well behind the eight year old schedule this race will be ahead or much closer!
Herculean Simon
All the way through the fleet the solo skippers are talking of setting their limits and sailing consistently rather than burning out and risking breaking anything in the Big South. The exception to a point is second placed Sébastien Simon (Groupe Dubreuil) who has had the most punishing regime forced upon him by the AEZ, the exclusion zone, to his south. Even by early this morning the skipper from Les Sables d’Olonne had linked together seven gybes one after the other, each representing 40 minutes of strength and stamina sapping effort in moderate conditions, but in 27-30kts and big seas, this has been a truly Herculean effort by Simon.
@VendeeGlobe
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