Friday December 27
© METEO CONSULT Marine
Yoann Richomme and Charlie Dalin are trudging forward in crosswinds that are not very strong (15/20 knots) but on choppy seas with 3 meter waves. They are on their way to the center of the depression which is coming towards them from the north. They can target the center by entering on starboard tack and exiting on port tack during a rapid rotation of the wind from the southeast to the west. They can also stay on its exterior, in the downwinds on its western edge. They therefore have to choose now between a route that keeps them far off the coast of South America, or a much more coastal route. It is their vision of the weather situation in 2 or 3 days which must guide them on one or the other of the options, because after this depression there is a zone of calm which awaits them at the latitude of Rio de Janeiro .
Sébastien Simon is on his good tack, on starboard tack in a south-southwest wind of 20/25 knots behind a front which passed him this morning around 06h00.
Thomas Ruyant is rapidly approaching Cape Horn, which he should reach around 6 p.m. UT, in a northwest wind of 25/30 knots. The entire group of pursuers is now heading directly towards Cape Horn, in a sufficiently northerly wind. -west to avoid further gybes. Yannick Bestaven, who brings up the rear of this group, could pass “this mark” barely 18 hours after Ruyant.
Saturday December 28
© METEO CONSULT Marine
The two leaders are very close to the center of the depression. They must jibe, in rather weak and very unstable winds, to head north-northwest, in southwest winds which remain too weak to allow them to accelerate significantly. It must be much better for Sébastien Simon who continues his ascent in a south-southeast flow of around twenty knots. Thomas Ruyant must also go quickly and well on a route which runs along the ZEA. Unless he chooses to tighten the wind more to cross the anticyclone that he has in front of him, upwind on its western edge.
The entire group of pursuers must have passed Cape Horn during the day. It's time for options. It can be increasingly tempting for latecomers to embark on a very coastal option to try another route.
Sunday December 29
© METEO CONSULT Marine
Yoann Richomme and Charlie Dalin gradually lose the influence of their depression and fall into a barometric marsh, in other words a slump with little wind, stuck between the trade winds to their north and the rest of the southerly flow which took them so far. 'at the latitude of 30° South.Sébastien Simon continues to recover, still on starboard tack, in 25 knots of southeast. He could then be less than 500NM from the leaders. Thomas Ruyant is negotiating the peak of the anticyclone which is only moving slowly towards the south-east. A certain number of the pursuers will probably have taken the coastal road, even if it means facing northerly winds established to the west of the Falklands. Find the METEO CONSULT Marine analysis every day in our special Vendée Globe report.
