Vendée Gobe at less than 350 miles from Point Nemo

The electrifying pace of recent days, the three pushing each other harder and harder in good conditions, now means they are all ahead of Armel Le Cléac’h’s 2016 record time and very likely to set a new mark for the Pacific Ocean when they escape at Cape Horn perhaps on Christmas Eve or thereabouts.

The leaders have 600 miles of a lead over the second group. But in terms of the Vendée Globe course on these modern IMOCA boats that is really next to nothing. Consider Yannick Bestaven on the last race lost more than 500 miles to Dalin when he became becalmed off the South American coast. And consider that Sam Davies (Initiatives Coeur) and Clarisse Crémer(L’Occitaine en Provence) are now nearly 600 miles behind Justine Mettraux (TeamWork-Team Snef) when a week ago they and Boris Herrmann (Malizia Seaexplorer) looked to be attached by glue.

Bestaven, winner of the 2020-21 race is showing the same skills and drive that earmarked his success on that last edition. He has worked himself clear of the group he was with and is putting all his efforts into catching up with the second trio Nico Lunven (HOLCIM PRB), Jérémie Beyou (Charal) and Thomas Ruyant (VULNERABLE) who are about 100 miles ahead, Herrmann too making gains all the time,

“My position in the fleet, I’m pretty happy, I’m not far from the first chasing group! And behind me I have another good chasing group. There’s still a lot of things to happen, nothing is prohibitive, even for those in the lead, I remember four years ago spending a lot of time stopped in Brazil! The main thing is to round Cape Horn as quickly as possible, in about nine days.” Said the skipper of Maître CoQ V, “It’s going pretty well, we’ve had some pretty tough conditions in the last few days, but I’ve done pretty well. Physically, I’m in good shape, mentally everything’s fine too, I don’t really see time passing! Besides, I don’t really have a sense of time, it’s more the boat and the weather that dictate the tempo, the days go by pretty quickly between the weather, the adjustments, the little maintenance jobs. What do I look like after 5 weeks at sea? I don’t have a mirror! I think I have bad hair, bearded and covered in salt!”

In 30th and approaching Cape Leeuwin is Japan’s Kojiro Shiraishi who is actually looking forwards to passing the longitude of his home country at around 135 degrees west, he is on resolute form:

Koji reports, “We are almost at Cape Leeuwin but more important for me is to pass the longitude of Japan at 135 degrees and being at the halfway point of the race. It is the same for all of us, as soon as you are half way the goal of getting to France is getting closer all the time and the motivation goes up and up. That is the same for me. I try to see the positives.

And of course the age thing, well I do feel my age and how tired I am. In 2020 I had just had heart surgery and this also was one of the weaknesses I had then but right now I do kind of feel my age now. But Manu, Denis and I are all around the same age and Jean Le Cam is older than us and I am so impressed with how he is, he sails so really well and makes good choices of tactics and his physical capabilities are, he is like Superman. But it is very humbling to be able to compete on this Vendée Globe with all these renowned skippers. I feel if I was in my 30s or 40s with this boat I would have pushed a lot harder and I would have wanted to do that. But this is the harsh reality of the age I am at at the moment.” 

On his third Vendée Globe Kojiro is now one of the older skippers on the race at 57 years old, the same age as both Denis Van Weynbergh and Manu Cousin but the young lion rookie Benjamin Ferré is finding it tough,

“Loneliness is starting to take its toll! For the first time yesterday I felt a little alone, I had never felt this way since the start! There was a little lull, I knew the bad weather was going to come back – it is the case, I already have 25 knots as I speak to you – and I don’t know, I had a little light wind one afternoon, I tidied up the whole boat, cleaned everything, I put the heating on. And I felt a little melancholy! But otherwise great! We are coming out of an epic night with my friend Tanguy! Nights with him are still intense… It was crazy! We will remember this night of December 16 to 17, 2024 for the rest of our lives! High intensity, which was well worth the breakage of a few longitudinals and a bulkhead, it really looked like a speed test for mad people in the Bay of Lorient! Except that we decided to do it in 45 knots, 6 meter troughs, along the ice zone south of Australia! Afterwards we laughed about it, but at the time we weren’t being clever, we were sending each other messages every hour telling each other that we were all going to die! It was a good trick, we were almost side by side, and there was not one to pull the other up, which ended up with us at 22 knots each, all night long we were the fastest!”

But, he admits, “I’m starting to feel a real physical and psychological fatigue, deep, which marks the mind, marks the muscles, the Indian was really trying, and I’m happy to have had this last fiery night with Tanguy to say goodbye to him!”

“I am still as impressed by the geography of our route, to think that the day has just dawned and you’re going to bed. We’re going to pass Tasmania, soon the anti-meridian, all that makes me travel! Right now we’re at 28 knots, you see, it’s crazy, we’re still big idiots! The conditions are still as hairy, it’s only going to get worse.”