Vendee Globe - If it’s Saturday, it must be the Azores
by Vendee Globe on 4 Mar 2017
TechnoFirst Face Ocean skipper Sebastien Destremau FRA aerial illustration of start of the Vendee Globe in Les Sables d Olonne France on November 6th 2016. Vincent Curutchet / DPPI / Vendée Globe
After Pieter Heerema finished yesterday morning in seventeenth place, there has been only one competitor left racing in the Vendée Globe. At 0800hrs UTC this Saturday morning, Sébastien Destremau (TechnoFirst-faceOcean) is 1435 miles from the finish, which he is expected to reach on around 10th March.
Conditions may not be the most comfortable for the tail-ender this morning to the west of the Azores with a 4-6m swell, but the 25-30 knot SW’ly wind is allowing Sébastien Destremau to average just over 11 knots this Saturday morning. At times, there are much stronger gusts, but Destremau is making good headway towards the NE and it currently looks like he will pass close to Flores, the westernmost island in the archipelago, this afternoon. These conditions should continue until tomorrow evening.
On Sunday night, he will have to cross a transition zone with the wind backing SE’ly, but by Monday morning, he should pick up a SW’ly wind, which looks like it will take him into the Bay of Biscay at the end of the week.
In a video sent back from the boat, the skipper reported boat-breaking conditions in the North Atlantic after a front went over. As we can see, the boat is slamming into heavy seas and with less than week to go to the finish, Destremau is well aware that now is not the time to break anything...
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