He still seemed a little tired, almost sleepy. But in his report from on board, it was clear that Boris Herrmann was in good spirits. Being the fastest over 24 hours boosts morale - especially because he was able to take more than 150 nautical miles off the boats ahead of him and also break away from the flotilla around Justine Mettraux, Sam Davies and Clarisse Crémer.
There has been no change in the Hamburg native's ranking. He is still sailing in tenth place. But for the first time, Yannick Bestaven, who is directly ahead of him on "Maitre Coq", is within reach - only around 80 nautical miles east of Boris. And he, we remember, won the Vendée Globe four years ago.
It feels like there's movement on the chessboard"
Herrmann wrote this in his Friends&Family chat group via WhatsApp at 3 p.m. Central European Time. He was surrounded by deep darkness in the Southern Ocean. Later, he amusedly reported in his daily video report that Sam Goodchild had sent him a message: "Looks like I'll have to wait for you. So hurry up!" Sailing in seventh position, the Brit was slowed down by an expanding high pressure channel while Boris still had fresh wind.
Boris Herrmann reduces backlog
"I can now see five boats around me via satellite AIS," said the skipper of the "Malizia-Seaexplorer". Only just under 100 nautical miles to the next one. Good for morale - mine," he clarified, "not theirs." Because everyone knows that he has the best boat for the rough Southern Ocean.
Boris' gap to Charlie Dalin, who is still in the lead, is still huge, but recently it was only just over 1,000 nautical miles, not over 1,300 as it was a few days ago.
Shortly afterwards, he furled his J Zero. In the beam of the deck light, he went to the foredeck, lowered the reaching sail on the halyard and packed it away. The wind will shift to the right and continue to increase from tomorrow morning onwards. Boris expects that from Monday onwards he will only be sailing with a storm jib and third reef in the main, a configuration that he has never used on a solo regatta before. "We will get hammered," he explained - in German:
We're going to get it bad"
Coming from Tasmania, the Pacific will greet him with a toxic storm depression and gusts of more than 50 knots from the north-northeast. It's not the only one; two more will keep the stragglers in the Indian Ocean busy. This is probably one of the reasons why all skippers have taken the opportunity today to carry out due checks or repairs (a selection in our picture gallery above).
Vendée Globe: Yoann Richomme confident
One man who is likely to remain unaffected by these weather conditions seemed satisfied today, even infectiously confident: Yoann Richomme. He had initially taken second place from Sébastien Simon - after a race to catch up that lasted several days and which not even Thomas Ruyant on his sister ship was able to follow. During the position update at 18:00 UTC, he then snatched the 24-hour record of the day from Boris and increased it by a good 10 to 510.54 nautical miles. That's just under 950 kilometres - the distance from Flensburg to Munich by wind power.
Yoann, happily bobbing up and down in his sprung bucket seat, declared that things were looking good for the next three days for him and Charlie Dalin, from whom he had also taken plenty of distance. In the end, only 132 nautical miles separated him from first place. A week ago, on St Nicholas' Day, when the "Paprec-Arkéa" skipper had dodged the first big storm far to the north, it was still more than 600!
Exciting days ahead with a great opportunity for Boris Herrmann at the 10th Vendée Globe
If the two top favourites remain in the narrowing wind field and manage to sail away from the high, they can pull away even further and do not run the risk of being swept up in the stormy depression approaching from the west.
If you don't escape the low, it will overtake you" Sam Goodchild
Anyone who might have got the impression that the Vendée has become a little dull can look forward to exciting days that will be extremely challenging for the skippers. Boris Herrmann is likely to have a great opportunity: he too will have to play it safe when the going gets tough. But before and after that, he can utilise the strengths of his tried-and-tested VPLP design and leave the more delicate boats astern.
