Vendee Globe - Golding climbs to fifth again

by Emily Caroe on 2 Feb 2013 Vendee Globe 2012-2013 - The early morning ranking on this 84th day of the course sees Mike Golding having risen to fifth place, now some 40 miles ahead of Jean Le Cam and the long-time rivals now splitting as they pursue different strategies.

Le Cam is heading more north, passing close to the Azores as he tries to go around the high pressure system, whilst Mike Golding has gone more to the east, looking to sail less miles and get into new breeze sooner. Speeds are very similar around 9.2 to 9.3kts.

Golding reported this morning, 'In a couple of hours I should get the shift and get back north. At the moment to be honest the ranking is a bit of a distraction because we won't know the real situation until later when we get back into pressure later today.

'Obviously we have a different strategy. Jean is looking to go round the high or at least poke his way through a bit of it. I don’t see that option really. I saw it but the problem is the routing has you doing 22knots and in the sea state we will have you can’t do that. But that said when you run the routes there is only hours of difference.

'The wind has been all over the place, up and down. I have just brought some new files in and they want me further east, so this is the very favoured tack. It is just painful getting here.'