"How beautiful is it!"
Goodbye albatrosses! ”
Monday evening, Yannick Bestaven sent earthlings a magnificent video postcard of a setting sun in the South Atlantic.
To an air of Johnny Hallyday, the leader of the Vendée Globe could well be euphoric, he who is now more than 200 miles ahead of his first pursuer Charlie Dalin.
“I'm in great shape, the weather conditions are good.
Yesterday was a beautiful day under the sun reaching with good speed.
The wind has eased now, because I am arriving in the high pressure area, the sea is calm, there is a beautiful moon, a sky full of stars, it is happiness.
It warmed up, the water temperature rose to 12 degrees, and there, it's 14-15 degrees in the cabin, it's definitely better!
I take off the diapers little by little because I am chilly… ”, said the skipper of Maître CoQ on Tuesday morning.
A leader of (very) good humor!
Sunset + Johnny + leading # VG2020 = @YannickBestaven in top form pic.twitter.com/yvXQHh4tmM
- Vendée Globe (@VendeeGlobe) January 5, 2021
After a Pacific which roughed up the fleet, the boss of the race was exhausted.
“I was burnt at Cape Horn, I got shaken up.
Yesterday, I forgot to put the alarm clock, I lay down it was daylight and I woke up it was daybreak!
I slept a lot, which you never do in a race, but I was lucky, the wind didn't move one iota, the boat was stalled at the same speed.
All night long, I slept, I even took 40 miles from Charlie!
It shows that I needed to rest, ”continues Bestaven, now faced with weak winds to the east of a high pressure zone placed in front of Argentina.
Not necessarily bad news.
The high pressure puzzle
“This anticyclone is falling well, it allows you to go around the boat, to recharge your batteries before attacking the rest which will be complex.
We will have to find the right road so we might as well be in great shape (…) It’s definitely going to slow me down, but it’s going to slow everyone down.
First out, first served!
This is also why yesterday, I put coal to go to 100% of the boat's poles.
We must not waste time now, ”explains the leader, happy to have been able to“ keep up with the latest generation foilers in conditions more favorable to them at the end of the Pacific.
“It's a new race that starts on terrain that we know a little better from Itajai (Brazil), in more moderate winds.
We will be able to shoot the machines, see the potential of each, it will be quite funny to see the differences in speed, ”adds a Bestaven ready for the fight.
The tactical analysis of Yoann Richomme, double winner of the Solitaire du Figaro
Loud tries a hit
210 miles behind, Charlie Dalin, back "from another planet, a world of water where the lands are fantasies", has also found form.
Marked on all fronts by the great South, the skipper of Apivia is now eager to do battle in the climb up the Atlantic and its traps, including the high pressure that the leading trio are facing.
“It's a moving high pressure system, not like a northern hemisphere high.
He moves and the strategy is not obvious.
I will do my best, in any case I am motivated, recovered, ready to fight on this Atlantic climb.
There are 6,500 miles left, I will give everything until the finish, ”announces Dalin who is watching Thomas Rouillard, 3rd at 130 miles and past the high pressure west.
“The advantage of Thomas' trajectory is that he should not be hampered by the high pressure, however he will have a lot of upwind.
The thing is, the trajectories are dictated by our positions at time T. An option may work for one and may not exist for the other.
Systems are in flux.
The options open and close differently for each other, ”summarizes the Norman.
The battle can really begin.
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