Vendée Globe: Yannick Bestaven, I am watching them closely

Vendée Globe: Yannick Bestaven, I am watching them closely

Vendée Globe: Yannick Bestaven, I am watching them closely

Sport

09/01/2021 - 18:15

Yannick Bestaven, race leader, is snared in a zone of light winds and can do nothing more than try to keep crawling north whilst always monitoring the progress of his rivals. On the morning call with Race HQ in Les Sables d'Olonne he explained....... 

"There is no wind, I am trimming all I can to make the boat go forward. There is a little bit of residual seaway but it is not unpleasant compared to what we have experienced not so long ago.

The wind I have is erratic I have 5 knots which is swirling around quite a bit, I continue to crawl slowly due north until the wind changes to the west-southwest so I should go downwind. This light stuff was forecast on the files but hopefully it won't last too long."

I don't know how long this will last. Normally not too long! Meantime it must be 25 degrees in the boat, the water temperature is also 25 degrees. It's hot, it's good for swimming! We are in warm water currents that are coming down and the temperature climbs quickly, it's impressive. The atmosphere is humid, it is cloudy, because there is the low pressure above us. It's hot and sweaty.

I have not seen anyone or any boats for a while. We are quite far from the coast, it will be more complicated in the climb along Brazil, because there are a lot of fishing boats. I hope the radar works well. The wind filed will be quite close to the land afterwards. It looks like we’ll be shaving the coast after Cabo Frio, and there are wind farms, and many oil platforms. I risk being in among all that, I will need to be very alert.

I'm watching what happens behind me, they will come back at me, my lead will decrease as the day goes on. I hope I will still I have some left over! That’s what’s at stake today and over this weekend. I am a happy man but I must continue to go forwards.. I'm going to eat chocolate because it keeps me awake, it and coffee stimulate me. And it is is very dark chocolate, very high in cocoa! "

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