Alexia Barrier on final Approach, Ari Huusela at the Azores

Sunday morning Alexia Barrier should be the fourth woman and the 24th skipper to finish the 2020-2021 Vendée Globe. And, facing a final few days of light upwind sailing across the Bay of Biscay, it now looks like it will be next Saturday 5th March before Finnish skipper Ari Huusela lowers the curtain on the epic ninth edition of the solo, non stop race around the world.

It is starting to feel like the end is coming. It will be the end of a truly memorable edition which broke many records but which unveiled a sporting event which saw a new level of intensity right to the finish line and – with 25 of 33 starters seeming set to finish – revealed a whole galaxy of sporting stars and human adventurers.  

The level of communication was as never experienced before thankfully blowing a feeling of freedom through hundreds of thousands of locked down, pandemic affected lives. Big dreams have been lived, transmitted and realised by proxy, intense highs and – thankfully –fewer deep lows – shared like never before. 

While lives on land have been, by necessity, straitened and boxed up, like we have never known before, individuals on land anchored to home, by contrast the sailors have remained the masters of their own destinies, never really knowing what will happen in the next few hours far less the following day. 
All have have been privileged to range the vast wild seascapes of the world’s oceans, unchallenged and unchecked, answerable only to the persistent call of the winds and the seas and – for most – to the incessant challenge of competition. 

And the solo Vendée Globe sailor is entirely free and responsible for his or her choices, the route, when and how to manoeuvre, challenged to resolving the ‘one problem every day’. They are free to slow down, to accelerate, to stop, to go on. They are free as night follows day follows night, to breathe in the fresh sea air, the wind and to admire the many, many faces of sea. 

The only rules imposed on them are those of the race and nature itself. 
It was back on January 27 that Yannick Bestaven and Charlie Dalin opened the finish line and now over a month later there are still two competitors at sea.
Alexia Barrier is less than 150 miles from the goal. On Sunday, she will register her name in 24th place in the standings. She has been upwind since arriving on the Bay of Biscay and there is still danger lurking to the end. During the night before last she says she passed, 10 meters from a fishing boat that was traveling without AIS!  She said she could see into their galley.

She only has one tack left this evening off Brittany before crossing the line on Sunday morning or early afternoon. After the celebrations - champagne and pizza as she wishes - she will head straight to the hospital for tests to check her injured back.

And then there is Ari Huusela. The first Scanidnavian to compete in the Vendée Globe, the airline pilot has care and caution as his watchwords, right from the start, looking just to finish, to complete his 20 year dream in complete safety. The skipper of Stark passed the islands of the Azores yesterday night and is taking time to reflect not just on his race, but the endeavours of four years that got him to the start line, and come next Saturday, the finish line.