Charlie Dalin continues to hold the lead with a margin of 222 miles over second placed Linked Out. South of them is Bureau Vallee 2, 359 miles astern of the leader. Whilst the leaders are now on the west side of the first depression. Another depression whose centre will pass south of the fleet to-day is moving eastward. Behind that there are lighter winds for a while.
Jean Le Cam continues in the race with is “Passenger” Kevin Escoffier. It is unclear what their plan is but logically it would be to drop Kevin off at the French Kerguelen Islands. Jean e Cam will not carry enough food to feed them both for too long and complete the race.
Sam Davis still holds 11th position 565 miles behind the leader, and some 2,125 miles from the lead Pip Hare is holding her own with her group. Miranda Mellon is 2,800 miles from the lead.
Alex Thomson is making his way towards Cape Town.
The International Jury is now meeting to decide the redress to be given to those boats that stopped racing to go to the assistance of Kevin Escoffier. This is standard. It is not designed to be a reward, just to compensate for the time or position lost when asked by the Race Committee to stop racing and deal with another boat’s emergency. It can never been 100% accurate of course, and my own experience of sitting on these juries is that those seeking redress always feel they were not given enough compensation, whilst the rest of the fleet feels they were rewarded!
Chasing the Vendee fleet is Frenchman Thomas Coville, in the 32 metre long Trimaran Sodebo, and his 8 man crew. Coville’s objective is to claim the Jules Verne Trophy for the fastest non-stop, unassisted circumnavigation by any boat. The time to beat is 40 days 23 hours and 30 mins. At the Equator Coville was 9 hours, 21 minutes faster than the time that the current record holder, Francis Joyon set in 2017. He has crossed the Equator from his start point off Ushant in North West France in a time of 5 days, 9 hours, 50 minutes. He will start to overtake the Vendee fleet beginning with the last boat in the fleet Charal, skippered by Jeremie Bayou which had to return to the start line for repairs snd has been trying to make up time since with very different weather conditions.