The Cape of Good Hope has passed, the South Seas have begun, and a duo stands out at the head of the Vendée Globe. On the morning of Tuesday, December 3, Charlie Dalin (Macif) was still leading the race but Sébastien Simon (Groupe Dubreuil) got even closer to him, clocking in at minus 18.8 nautical miles at 7 o'clock. Or a few units less than the day before at the same time (22.91 minutes).
The big loser of the last 24 hours is Yoan Richomme (Paprec-Arkéa), left behind during the night. The double winner of the Route du Rhum (2018 and 2022) lost 178 nautical miles in a single day. Monday morning at 7 a.m., it clocked in at 27.23 minutes. Tuesday morning, he was demoted to 205.47 minutes behind leader Charlie Dalin.
The three skippers, who chose the southernmost route among the 15 leading sailors, have further widened the gap on the rest of the team, since Thomas Ruyant (Vulnerable), the fourth, is now at 393 miles.
Behind, there is no shortage of fierce duels: Nicolas Lunven (Holcim – PRB) and Jérémie Beyou (Charal) are almost edge to edge for fifth place. Sam Goodchild (Vulnerable) temporarily supplanted the defending champion, Yannick Bestaven (Maître Coq V), for seventh place.
But the arrival of two southern depressions could well reshuffle the cards. Since Sunday, the heading towards the East, more risky in theory, has been very successful for Dalin and Simon, but the two men were heading towards the North-East on Tuesday morning.
Nicolas Lunven (Holcim-PRB), currently 584 miles from the lead, was the first to choose this direction. “There is a depression which is arriving from behind, from the West, which will catch up with us and sweep away the entire Kerguelen area”he explained to the organization.
“If you find yourself trapped just in front of the center of the depression, or worse in the south of the center, you find yourself tacking, in 30-40 knots, and especially behind the center of the depression, it deepens very strongly and it There are winds up to 50-60 knots and the seas are obviously nice, so things in which I don't necessarily want to go sailing.warned the Vannes resident.
