Regatta: Vendée Globe: Boris Herrmann has started his race to catch up

Boris Herrmann is back in the fight for the podium places. The "Seaexplorer - Yacht Club de Monaco" skipper had been struggling badly in the intra-tropical convergence zone, also known as the Doldrums, and had dropped back to seventh place. But now he has also reached the north-east trade winds in the northern hemisphere, has already switched to the trade wind gallop and has been able to reduce the gap to leader Charlie Dalin ("Apivia") again. The 39-year-old moved up to sixth place in the intermediate classification on Tuesday morning and is now engaged in an exciting race with the boats ahead of him on the northern course, around 150 nautical miles behind Dalin. In the early morning, Herrmann was separated from "Maître Coq IV" skipper Yannick Bestaven in fifth place by just 13 nautical miles.

After sailing more than 25,000 of the 24,296 nautical miles around the world, Herrmann still has a good 2,800 nautical miles to go to the start and finish harbour of Les Sables-d'Olonne. With a failure rate of just under 25 per cent so far (eight tasks since the start with 33 boats), the ocean marathon often referred to as the "Demolition Derby" has so far been kinder to its participants than previous editions on average (46 per cent). But Herrmann can achieve more than his most important goal of arriving. At his première, the man from Hamburg has put up a sensational fight against the mighty French competition and is now attacking again. The lead of the boats ahead of him could melt away, as Team Malizia's weather expert Will Harris predicted exclusively for YACHT online on Monday evening.

The front runners know that they can now make good use of every nautical mile ahead of the German with intact foils and sails. Charlie Dalin, who has led the intermediate rankings 179 times since the start of the ninth edition of the race on 8 November, remains in front for the time being. Louis Burton ("Bureau Vallée 2") had led the fleet in two position reports and crossed the equator first, but dropped back to fourth place on Tuesday morning, 108 nautical miles behind Dalin and his smaller foils. Thomas Ruyant ("LinkedOut") had a strong night, catapulting himself back into second place and chasing Dalin with a gap of just over 100 nautical miles. Damien Seguin continued to keep up masterfully on "Groupe Apicil", even without foils, and was only two nautical miles behind Ruyant in third place at the end of the 72nd day at sea.

Boris Herrmann describes how good it feels after the Doldrums-Qual when the wind comes back in this clip from on board

JOSCHKE GETS CLOSER TO SAFE HARBOUR

The German-French sailor Isabelle Joschke is getting closer and closer to her and her team's chosen port of call, Salvador de Bahia. Still with the keel of her "MACSF" swinging free and therefore travelling extremely cautiously at mostly only six to eight knots, the 43-year-old from Lorient in Brittany recently appeared reconciled with herself and the race. The Munich-born skipper told YACHT online: "I even crossed my own track on the way to Salvador de Bahia and felt that I had sailed round the three capes and thus the world. I want to preserve this feeling."