Roland Jourdain this evening shows no sign of backing off, 31 miles behind Michel Desjoyeaux and matching him to within 0.1 of a knot, but if tonight and tomorrow he was especially nervous then it would be entirely understandable.
On 17th December 2007 (2220hrs GMT) Jourdain and Jean Luc Nelias were forced out of the Barcelona World Race when their mast broke.
And, remarkably, four years ago today, 17th December 2004, he was a devastated, disappointed skipper forced to push the helm down and head 900 miles north for Hobart when he was lying in third place.
A cracked keel head, black liquid oozing from it, was the cause of his retirement.
“It’s all over, there is no way I can continue,” he told the Radio Vacs four years ago today, “It’s a crushing blow. We were really in the match and now the sky has fallen in on me.”
“ The hardest thing is having to head north. F*** it! I really don’t want to push the helm north”
Bilou says he is not especially superstitious and has sailed a superb race to date, but he will be pleased to get through the next few hours on a boat he knows so well.
Indeed, with 19 new boats built for this race and 30 entries, who would have predicted that two of the three boats which formed the top three four years ago, would again be in the top three, on the same dates?