Since he seized the Vendee Globe lead last night, Alex Thomson has been on a slightly more westerly course, looking ahead to the doldrums crossing tomorrow, but also converging back to close the door on Vincent Riou (PRB) and Armel Le Cleac'h (Banque Populaire VIII). Thomson's Hugo Boss remains slightly quicker in terms of average speed than his pursuers who are about 17 miles behind. The leading group are in a 15-20kt NE'ly trade wind. Sebastien Josse (Edmond de Rothschild) has moved up to fourth, effectively gaining 15 miles because of his smooth trajectory to the West, which meant he did not need to gybe.

In second, Riou (PRB) passed some forty miles or so to the West of the island, shadowed by Jérémie Beyou (Maître CoQ). The seven leaders are still very close to one another and have a cushion of over a hundred miles over Yann Eliès (Quéguiner-Leucémie Espoir) who is also taking some West in his course. The leaders are still quick, though they will see their speeds ease slightly over the day as the trade winds will drop very slightly for them, Kojiro Shiraishi and Jean Pierre Dick have been slightly compromised by their minor damage - Koji blew his Code Zero - and Jean-Pierre his tack line jammer - the problem facing Tanguy de Lamotte is more critical. The skipper of Initiatives Couer is heading to the shelter of Mindelo and lighter airs where he will seek to resolve his problem at his masthead.

The leaders are lining up for their Doldrums crossing - some 500 miles ahead the NE'ly backs sharply to the E and then the winds get messy.
 

Photo Alex Thompson / Hugo Boss / Vendèe Globe

However, these two degrees of longitude clawed back as they drop southwards are not easy pickings and there is sure to be some manoeuvring on the cards! In fact, this is probably the most important phase being played out between these leaders: the genuine doldrums, this Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), where the calms alternate with the squalls, seems to be stretching out between 5°N and 2°N, which equates to around 150 miles where the breeze will rarely exceed 5 knots. It will be Monday, during the early afternoon for the front runners when the Doldrums slow down really hits. An entry in daylight hours is always a little easier to negotiate. But here a few hours’ separation can quickly be transformed into a deficit of over several dozen miles.

Tanguy de Lamotte is making about six knots towards Mindelo which is 140 miles to his south, so he will currently arrive during the night. De Lamotte explained this morning: “I’d been sailing in ‘normal’ mode for 24 hours under Code 0 and full main: all of a sudden, the masthead came loose. I haven’t found any mechanical explanations since I recovered the part in a bid to try to understand what happened. I’ve had to dump the mainsail completely and the headsail went over the side, trawling under the boat. As it was pulling down hard on the mast, I had to release it, but it got caught up in the keel fin. I’m dragging it along with me so I’m making slow headway. I unfurled another headsail on the forestay mounting plate tang and I went up and recovered the masthead, which was dangling mid-air from a halyard. As a result, I have the small broken section with the electronic aerials, the VHF aerial… All those elements there are a result of a small carbon tube exploding.

I’m heading towards Saint Vincent under J-2. I wasn’t able to dive down to free up the keel as the seas were too heavy so I’m having to head to an anchorage. I’m 150 miles from Cape Verde and there’s a bay in Mindelo where I can stop. There I’ll be able to extract the sail from the keel and scale the mast to effect repairs. At that point I’ll be able to rehoist the mainsail, even if I have to constantly keep one reef in it and I won’t be able to use masthead sails at all (Code 0, large spinnaker, large gennaker). I’ll be able to sail, but with less sail area.

I won’t take any risks and I’ll have to carefully assess all that before setting sail again. I don’t know Mindelo, but I have someone from my team who has stopped there before during a race. He told me that there was a well-protected bay there with anchorages and even mooring buoys. I’m making headway at around seven knots and I’ll try to reach there before nightfall: I won’t take any risks as I have to get there in daylight hours to make the manœuvre.

It has been another tough night for Sebastien Destremeau on FaceOcean, he has been stuck in the lee of La Palma in the Canary Islands and has slowed, while Didac Costa (OnePlanet One Ocean has successfully negotiated Finisterre.

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Photo- Jean Marie Liot / DPPI / Vendèe Globe