For 48 hours, the muscles of the leaders have been heating up like never before since the start of the Vendée Globe.
Pushed by a westerly wind on the road to Good Hope, Charlie Dalin and Thomas Rettant try to make their way on one of the small bands of fluctuating wind in the heart of a torn Saint Helena high.
Gybing competition
To keep as much speed as possible while maintaining the best trajectory, the leading duo must multiply the gybes, change the side from which the sailboat receives the wind from behind.
A long and grueling maneuver that Charlie Dalin performed ten times in just 36 hours.
The work of arms and neurons - the sailors constantly inspect on screen the most favorable areas to gain or not to lose speed - has paid off.
On Tuesday morning, the Apivia skipper was 37 miles ahead on LinkedOut.
But at 9:00 am, Rettant, stalled further north, was going faster than its competitor (10 knots against 6) in a more favorable wind (10 knots against 8).
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"Charlie (Dalin) does this very, very well"
Thomas Loud
“We spend time at the chart table to find the way.
We know the outline, but there are a lot of subtleties to deal with and, for now, Charlie (Dalin) does that very, very well.
The position of 2nd in the Vendée Globe with a mattress in advance is quite comfortable, it's true, but we have not yet entered the Indian Ocean ”, explained Rettant at dawn.
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The goal for the duo?
Go south, just above the ice line, and recover as quickly as possible from the strong downwinds to accelerate on their foils.
They should cross the Cape of Good Hope Sunday or Monday, with three or four days behind the times of Armel Le Cléac'h and Alex Thomson four years ago.
Long leader of the race, the Briton continues his repairs on the hull of Hugo Boss.
Confident in his ability to restore strength to his boat, he is only 8th at 470 miles from the lead and is trailing at less than 4 knots.
Major damage for Destremau
Curiosity of this 9th edition, the cardboard cap hastily made by Sébastien Destremau before the start did not, as expected, withstand the spray of the Atlantic.
But the Toulonnais has to deal with a much more serious problem this Tuesday, since Merci's keel, his monohull, suffered "major damage".
The 56-year-old sailor was in the Doldrums when the accident - possibly an encounter with an ofni - occurred.
“The boat and the sailor are not in danger,” says his team.
But the second round-the-world tour of the one who was the last to return to Les Sables d'Olonne four years ago has gone downhill.
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