If there is a halfway point in the ever-changing line around the globe that the Vendée Globe skippers are tracking along, then with around 11,500 miles to go the leaders have now passed it.
But after 42 days at sea, and 12 retirements, the battle at the front of the fleet is still as white-hot as ever.
Overnight, race leader Michel Desjoyeaux passed the tip of New Zealand’s south island and now has just three gates — New Zealand, West and East Pacific — between him and Cape Horn. Foncia is still sailing at speeds of around 17 knots, a pace even the leading group of Jourdain (Veolia Environment), Josse (BT) and Le Cam (VM Matériaux) are struggling to keep up with.
These four are still keeping a southerly line — although this morning Le Cam has gybed onto a bearing of 062 — while the next chasing duo of Le Cléac’h and Riou are around 270 miles further north. In lighter breezes and consistently a couple of knots slower, they have conceded around 100 miles to the leader over the past 24 hours.
Further back the duo of Dee Caffari (Aviva, GBR) and Arnaud Boissieres (Akena Vérandas) have become the latest skippers to pass the milestone of Cape Leeuwin, and are gaining on Brian Thompson (GBR), whose speed is still suffering as he makes structural repairs to Bahrain Team Pindar.
Other good gains have been made by Derek Hatfield (Algimouss Spirit of Canada) in 17th place, who has been riding the edge of a low pressure system at good speeds to cover over 300 miles in the past 24 hours.
The anticipated low pressure system which Meteo France warned could bring severe weather conditions to the last two skippers in the fleet — Raphael Dinelli and Norbert Sedlacek — seems to have stayed to the south-west of the Kerguelen Is, with both boats taking a line to the north of the islands to avoid the worst of the storm.
Back in Australia, the frigate HMAS Arunta with rescued sailor Yann Elies aboard arrived in Fremantle this morning at 3h10 GMT. Elies was met by members of the Generali team before being immediately transferred to the Royal Perth Hospital.
Generali’s Jean-Baptiste Epron reported: “The Arunta moored up just after 0300h. We spent five minutes with Yann before he was taken off. He is in a suit which protects his chest and leg. He is talking very slowly due to the medicine. The medical team are with him and the captain came to say goodbye. Yann thanked him and they agreed to see each other when he is better. You could tell that he cannot stand moving and is still suffering in spite of the medicine. It’s not easy leaving him like that. With Philippe [Laot, Team Generali’s technical director], we’ll be setting off in a few hours to recover his boat, so that will be one thing less to worry about.”