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9:28 AM Sat 29 Nov 2008 GMT
Lo?ck Peyron, who's been the prince of darkness in this Vend?e Globe, has not performed his usual night-time manoeuvres and for the first morning in two weeks he is showing in third, rather than first, place.
However, Gitana Eighty is as far south as current leader S?bastien Josse (BT), who holds first place overnight on BT, as the pair dive down towards the high pressure zone.
Behind them there has been a small reshuffle, as Yann Elies climbs to fourth place from ninth yesterday, and is currently taking the more south-easterly line than the front three. Mike Golding (Ecover, GBR) in ninth is now right behind the front runners, and along with Jean-Pierre Dick (Paprec Virbac 2) in sixth is also currently on a slightly easterly heading (153 degrees for Ecover) - more jostling for position, or is it nearly time to break for the Cape?
The answer to that question depends of course on the St Helena High, which this morning is still showing as expanding in diameter as it tracks east. The front-runners are around 600 miles from the very centre of the anticyclone, which they can expect to reach in two or three days - all currently seem to be aiming to pass to the west of the light winds zone.
For the first time this week those next in line, such as Dominque Wavre (Temenos II, SUI) and Brian Thompson (Bahrain Team Pindar, GBR), have made little inroads into the leader's advantage. In fact you have to go back to Steve White in 7th place (Toe in the Water, GBR) before any skipper has taken more than 50 miles out of the front runners. Toe in the Water has now passed the islands of Trinidade and Martin Vaz.
Michel Desjoyeaux, meanwhile, is still storming through to the west on Foncia. Currently hitting boatspeeds of around 17-18 knots, Mich Desj's westerly line seems to be rewarding him with some fast conditions, which he described this morning as like 'hitting 40km/h in a ploughed field in a Golf with the tyres pumped right up!'. Foncia is currently around 200 miles west of the main group, and 80 miles west of Dominque Wavre in Temenos.
Bernard Stamm on Chemin?es Poujoulat (SUI) has again posted the highest 24-hour distance covered, taking over 100 miles out of the leaders in the past day.
News from the boats
Brian Thompson (Bahrain Team Pindar)is in 11th place, 191 miles from the leader and is currently sailing at the latitude of Uruguay. Like his fellow competitors, he is looking ahead to the southern seas, while enjoying the final days of warm weather, as he explained in his log last night.
'A stunning day, there is not a cloud in the sky and the water is a sparkling blue. It is starting to feel colder, and I am wearing my foul weather gear on deck for the windchill and the spray. But I am going to remember this bright and sunny day at 30 degrees of Latitude, so that I can imagine it when I am in the cold and drizzle of the South, when you think that there is nothing more in the whole world than the 100 metres of murk around you. It will help to keep pushing when you can say, only 10 more days of this cold and dampness, and then there will be light and sunshine, it is around the corner, just keep going! Cabin temperature is 28 degrees and water temp is 19.4 degrees. Seen several birds at a distance, but maybe the water is now too cold for the flying fish, as not seen any today.'
Michel Desjoyeaux (Foncia)is currently in 14th place, 290 miles from the leader and around fifty miles from his next target, Sam Davies.
'I don't have the pressure of being with the leaders. I'm driving the boat at my pace and in a more relaxed manner. I'm not going to catch them up in two days. Look at the time I've taken to catch up with those with boats with less potential. It'll be more difficult to catch the latest generation boats, which is entirely normal! Currently I'm looking as far as the first gate. We should get there around 3rd December and then we'll bounce from gate to gate, which should take about 5/ 6 days of sea. This will enable us to have fairly high quality weather data, which will make the tactics fairly interesting and not such a lottery.'
0500HRS GMT. Rankings, (FRA, unless stated)
1- Seb Josse (BT) at 19529.9 miles to the finish
2-Armel Le Cl?ac'h (Brit Air) at + 13 miles to leader
3- Lo?ck Peyron (Gitana Eighty) at + 14.6 miles
4-Yann Elies (Generali) at + 15.3 miles
5-Jean le Cam (VM Mat?riaux) at + 17.8 miles to leader
Selected International
9- Mike Golding, GBR, (ECOVER 3) at + 36.1 miles
11- Brian Thompson, GBR, (Bahrain Team Pindar) at + 191.9 miles
12- Dominique Wavre, SUI, (Temenos 2) at + 197.2 miles
13- Sam Davies, GBR, (ROXY) at + 223.3 miles
15- Dee Caffari, GBR, (AVIVA) at + 375.2 miles
17- Steve White, GBR, (Toe in the Water) at +600.1 miles
18 - Johnny Malbon, GBR, (Artemis) at + 692.7 miles
18- Unai Basurko, ESP, (Pakea Bizkaia) at + 758.5 miles
20- Rich Wilson, USA, (Great America III) at + 807.1 miles
22- Bernard Stamm, SUI, (Chemin?es Poujoulat) at + 853.6 miles
23- Norbert Sedlacek, AUT, (Nauticsport-Kapsch) at + 1283.8 miles
24- Derek Hatfield, CAN, (Algimouss Spirit of Canada) at + 1476.1 miles
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Cape Leeuwin, WA
Foiling - Components (Wings,Masts,etc)
