800 miles separated Armel le Cléac'h, leader of this eighth edition of the Vendée Globe from Alex Thomson, the British dolphin, who had lost a foil, leaving the Breton in the lead. However, for the past few days, the former leader (Alex Thomson had taken the lead of the fleet quickly at the start) has been clawing back miles on his direct rival... This Thursday 29th December 2016, only 74 miles separate the two skippers!
The fault lies with a high-pressure cell which is blocking the skipper of Banque Populaire VIII and reducing the hard-earned miles to nothing. Alex Thomson is taking advantage of his opponent's weakness to attack: he has been the fastest of the whole fleet over the past 24 hours with 432 miles covered. As a Christmas present, Alex Thomson has managed to lift the stump of his foil" He's out of the water and no longer causing drag marks. I didn't even have to cut it off. It makes me happy.. "He had broke her starboard foil after only two weeks of racing ...following a violent collision with a UFO.
The gap is therefore closing significantly: 194 miles at 0500, 158 miles at 0900, 131 miles at noon, 101 miles at 1500 and 74 miles at 1800.
Armel has seen others and takes the return of his pursuer with philosophy. " It wasn't the right week to play the lottery." he jokes. " The situation is complicated. I had a good lead at Cape Horn, but since then I've been experiencing weather phenomena. The high-pressure barrier is blocking the route to Banque Populaire VIII and it's coming back behind. The 800 mile lead over Alex Thomson at Cape Horn has quickly shrunk to not much. Bad luck, but that's the game of ocean racing and you have to deal with it. I'm staying positive. Alex will also hit the high pressure and we'll have a head count in a few days when we hit the trade winds."
From now on, all that's left for Armel to do is to cross as quickly as possible through this bean-shaped bubble which is blocking the passage at 35° South, off Uruguay. However, it's always a bit of a lottery in this type of weather system, which fluctuates enormously over the hours, being able to spread out in terms of both longitude and latitude!
