The sailors shouldn’t have to deal with the light stuff for too long due to a second front moving in quickly from the west. In a few hours, they will once again have stronger winds and rough seas to compete with, but when they cross this front, they should finally have a favourable wind direction that will allow them to tack and head south towards the Azores. Thanks to his lead on those around him, Charlie will reach the stronger winds first and, I imagine, will again extend his lead.
In the north, Louis Duc (Fives Lantana Environnement) is now more than 130nm behind Charlie and in 28th position. The incoming secondary front meant that the favourable conditions he hoped to encounter never materialised. He spent most of yesterday searching for any speed he could, with boat speeds below 5kn for a lot of the time. He is now heading in the same direction as the rest of the fleet but is 330nm further north than the majority of the sailors.
It’s looking more and more obvious that the southern option was the correct one – all the boats will be dealing with similar conditions over the next day or so, but those in the south will have considerably less distance to travel.
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