Vendée Globe: Justine Mettraux and Alan Roura smile again

Charlie Dalin, after the night from Thursday to Friday, is still leading the Vendée Globe in the rankings on Friday at 7:00 a.m. (06:00 GMT), but his leading position is increasingly threatened by Thomas Ruyant, who is now only ‘at 13.14 miles.

Just behind, Yoann Richomme (Paprec Arkéa) stole third place, 29.34 miles from the leader, from Sébastien Simon (Groupe Dubreuil). Dalin is advancing less quickly than his next three (18.78 knots per hour compared to 23.38 for Simon), and his first place is hanging by a thread.

The four leading men widened the gap during the night on the rest of the fleet – the fifth, Nicolas Lunven (Holcim – PRB) now, 159.14 miles behind the first -, who considerably slowed down the pace. They should pass the Cape of Good Hope in the morning and dive into the Indian Ocean.

“Everything is going well on board, it has calmed down a lot, I have twenty knots of wind, on relatively calm seas, I am downwind, the boat is sliding, these are really easy conditions and it feels a lot of good” , declared Sébastien Simon, coming out of a depression having quickly led the leading men towards the Cape of Good Hope throughout the week, in a radio link on Friday morning.

“I’m really looking forward to finding myself in the Indian and setting off into this corridor of the South Seas, plus the Indian looks pretty good and we will very quickly find ourselves in Australia,” adds Simon, morale is high.

Mettraux and Roura come back

Justine Mettraux (Teamwork-Team Snef) also found a smile again. Victim of damage to her front sail two days ago, the Genevoise gained a place by overtaking the Frenchwoman Clarisse Crémer (L’Occitane en Provence) on Thursday evening. “It’s nice, it gives motivation,” declared the woman who is now in 12th place, 790 miles from the lead.

Alan Roura (Hublot) also had a successful day. 27th on Thursday morning, the Genevan gained three places in 24 hours and is positioned 24th on Friday, nearly 1,800 miles from first. Third Swiss skipper of this “Everest of the seas”, Zurich native Oliver Heer (Tut Gut.) is 34th, 2,100 miles away.