The boats are not very far from my position on Christmas Day 1968, only I had more wind and gave myself appalling indigestion with my attempts at a Christmas Pudding!
It looks as if Charlie Dalin’s tactic has played off so far as his distance from the leader to the next waypoint is down to 1.2 miles but this is mainly down to Maître CoQ heading north east to try and get into stronger winds on the north side of the high pressure system, whereas Apivia is in the south with lighter winds. For both the objective is to get to the east of the system and pick up stronger winds from a more favourable direction and whoever gets there first will have the lead. But the high is moving eastwards and extending and it may be a day or two before it becomes clear who got the best of it.
Linked Out has dropped right back to 8th position, having gone further north to search for better winds. Third place is now held by Boris Herrmann’s Sea Explorer, 294 miles from the lead having closed 80 miles in the past 24 hours, as has Jean Le Cam, just 1 mile difference from Sea Explorer. Four miles separate the next four boats, just 24 miles further behind.
Pip Hare has covered 370 miles in the past 24 hours and should pass the Longitude of Tasmania tomorrow, 2,581 miles behind the lead and Miranda Merron is a further 1,000 miles astern. Jérémie Beyou in Charal continues his remorseless progress into 19th place, 3,000 miles back. He won’t be able to make up for the time he lost at the beginning but has not given up.
Merry Christmas everyone.