Despite a slow start, their speed of between 10 and 12 knots made them believe that anything was still possible. Their delay was to be made up in about 5 hours. At midnight, the two men were 395 miles from the goal.
After a night at sea, Bertrand and Anthony were tired, but still very motivated. All the more so as from 0046 hours, they already had a 13.5 mile lead. By 0900 hours, they had already covered 170 miles.
On June 25, 2016 at 8 p.m., the duo was 188 nautical miles from Carthage, with a lead of 23 nautical miles. On 26th June, the two skippers began their final sprint of their 3 e sailing day. Although they were only 45 miles from Carthage, they were nevertheless 45 miles behind due to the wind being too light, as their router Dominic explained "Yes, there was no wind for most of the day between Sardinia and Tunisia... The wind will come back tonight. I see them coming around 6:00."
The defeat of Bertrand and Anthony was announced in the following message on the Challenge Facebook page "Good evening to you,
We've been at it since 9:30. We know the record is over and we can't beat it... A big disappointment for the whole team, whether on the boat, the following boat or the ground team (communication, routing, security, etc.)
We've all invested as much as possible for nearly 3 months to succeed in this extraordinary challenge, to beat this record set by Yvan, which is very difficult to take and which shows that Yvan Bourgnon is not one of the best French sailors for nothing!!!
You've been huge, on Facebook, by message, etc. A crazy mobilization around our challenge that brought us a lot even if it will take time to draw all the positive lessons... There were only a few errors in the routing, navigation and lucidity, which is why I think we can be extremely proud of our extreme sportsmen and women !!! They knew how to stay the course, fishing and envy all the way and what a fucking beautiful adventure.
They've already achieved a feat crossing the Mediterranean like this, few people have done it and they had the guts to live their dream, to make one come true for the children of Imagine for Margo, but also and above all for all of you who followed them."
The two sailors ended their Carthage Challenge on the morning of June 27th, reaching Carthage at 5 a.m., after 61 hours and 26 minutes.
