Regatta: Vendée Globe: Comeback for Louis Burton on course for Point Nemo

You could hear Louis Burton's relief. After extensive repairs, the skipper from Saint-Malo in Brittany has his boat back under control and has gone straight into attack mode. "That was one of the hardest jobs I've ever done in my life! We have a new mast track, I can set the mainsail fully again and we will be able to sail back to Les Sables quickly!" The skipper of the boat, which had already led the ninth edition of the Vendée Globe before a technical problem pushed him back to eleventh place, can once again get everything out of his "Bureau Vallée 2". And this is not just any Imoca, but the winning boat that won the eighth edition as "Banque Populaire VII" with Armel Le Cléac'h and set the still existing best time of 74 days, 3 hours, 35 minutes and 46 seconds, which the fleet is currently trailing by around six days.

The race committee in Les Sables-d'Olonne had followed Burton's repair attempts on the screen every few minutes. Burton had needed three attempts in two different positions to complete his feat of strength. The first had taken place at 12.18pm German time on Advent Sunday. He then moved northwards and tried again at around 3.08am. After the third attempt at 4 a.m., he was finally able to report the successful repair. Burton's happiness can certainly be seen as a challenge by the front runners, even though the 35-year-old still had 938 nautical miles to make up on the leading Yannick Bestaven on "Maître Coq IV" on the Monday morning after the 4th Advent.

At the end of the 43rd day at sea, things are getting closer again between Bestaven's closest pursuers Charlie Dalin ("Apivia") and Thomas Ruyant ("LinkedOut"). The gap between the two skippers, who are travelling as fast as the conditions allow despite damaged foils, has recently narrowed to 30 nautical miles. Behind them, Boris Herrmann is leading the chasing pack, which is widening boat by boat in the surprisingly tame conditions of the South Pacific, as other chasers such as Maxime Sorel on "V and B Mayenne" have been able to catch up.

In the leading trio, Thomas Ruyant was pleased with his wise forward planning shortly after the mountain festival and the enjoyment of a risotto, not without an ironic undertone: "I'm starting to be glad that I have provisions for 80 days with me." Just like Boris Herrmann and other top skippers, Ruyant's catering has contradicted the assumption that the fastest boats in this edition might even be able to beat the 70-day limit; at the moment, after an unusually difficult course halfway around the world, it doesn't look like it. The leading boats continue to sail in moderate winds of 13 to 15 knots towards Point Nemo - the furthest point on earth from any human civilisation. The annoying thing for the top group is that they are heading towards an area of high pressure, which is likely to increasingly block their path.

"It's a gybing game that's all about timing and speed," Ruyant described the scenario. "As we go through this section, we try to get a little closer to the forbidden Antarctic zone each time to avoid the very light areas. It's unlikely that we'll have wind most of the time. We have to sail through the centre of the high to get back into more pressure. The high pressure area will keep us busy for a while. I hope that Yannick doesn't get away from us up ahead."

Here is a summary that the Imoca class published on the afternoon of the 4th Advent in the series "Through the eyes of heroes" about Boris Herrmann

Boris Herrmann observes the situation from his vantage point in fourth position. The 39-year-old skipper of the "Seaexplorer - Yacht Club de Monaco" said early on Monday morning: "Sometimes I compare my journey with that of my wife at home with the baby, with these short sleep phases where she is woken up by the baby every two hours. She can never rely on whether it's going to be a quiet evening where she can just sit down and watch the baby sleep or the baby will cry every few minutes and make it a night of terror or something. Nothing really seems predictable out here either. I'm running a bit out of juice with the big 300 square metre gennaker on my foiler, while Jean Le Cam is catching up with me again. I read a bit of what Jérémie Beyou said. It said how slow this race is compared to the last one. He said that it's simply a matter of ten degrees here and there. And two knots more or less that make the difference. If I could wish for anything this morning, it would be wind from ten degrees north and three knots more. Then I'd be sailing at record speed along the ice edge. Instead, I'm slow and jibing and sometimes feel like I'm going nowhere."