Enjoying a temporary lull through part of today, skippers in the Transat Jacques Vabre were steeling themselves, preparing for one more beating which stands between them and the easier, faster conditions south of the Azores.
Once again the conditions will be tougher for those in the northern group, one which is looking like an increasing advantage for the meantime. Those who took the ‘'high road, the northern routing, have so far escaped relatively unscathed – fatigued and with a few bumps, bruises and the odd mechanical and electrical problem – while already some of those who elected to go for the seemingly prudent southern routing, were today regretting their decision.
Marc Guillemot and Charles Caudrelier became the fourth leader of the IMOCA Open 60 class when they steadily overhauled Seb Josse and JF Curzon on BT over today, with the radical, chined Prevost-Verdier design taking a lead of 4.7 miles ahead of Josse and Curzon, while Britain's Mike Golding may be struggling to get on top of autopilot problems and an electrical blackout from early this morning, but was up to third place on the late afternoon rankings.
Those on the southern routing have started to tack this afternoon. With a deficit of 277 miles Foncia turned NW this afternoon, as did Vincent Riou and Arnaud Boissières on Akena Verandas.
From the nav station on Artemis, Sidney Gavignet, co-skipper with Sam Davies, confirmed to today's radio call in that their present routing has them with a deficit of ‘more than 300 miles' by the Caribbean.
That said, there is a lot which can change. For the southern brigade the trade winds, such as they are, are still a long way south. The main risk for the north-ists is a secondary high pressure which may drift south to slow them, but the majority belief is that their advantage – for the moment – is solid.
The northern group still have that final hurdle, through Friday 13th, with winds up to 50 knots forecast at the back of the next system with, for around 18-20 hours.
Alex Thomson on Hugo Boss, who along with 1876 ventured furthest north, reported a very unpleasant night during which they saw 47 knots and very big seas. Deep reefed with a storm jib, they took their punishment for a matter of hours to hold a strong strategic position. Hugo Boss are up to sixth this afternoon, overhauling their compatriots on Aviva.
Dee Caffari and Brian Thompson have had minor running repairs to contend with, rescuing their pulpit during the night, whilst Yves Parlier, sounding tired noted whimsically that he was struggling to deal with an engine problem on the Spanish boat 1876 which sees an oil and water mix of ‘mayonnaise'.