"It's sunny and tradewinds, but it's also quite a bumpy ride, the nerves are tense," reports the German from on board his "Seaexplorer". Every now and then the alarms go off because the boat flies too high and crashes hard into one of the waves.
But Herrmann is satisfied, he is trying to find a good balance between speed and protecting the boat. Before the start, he told YACHT that these boats "have the potential to destroy themselves" and that it is up to the skipper to prevent this by taking his foot off the accelerator at the right moment. This is reflected in the fact that the German sails a little more defensively at night, either reefing down or setting the autopilot so that it drops faster if there is too much pressure.
News from "Seaexplorer"
However, this has its price: with not quite 420 nautical miles in 24 hours, Herrmann sails significantly slower than Kevin Escoffier's "PRB" or the two equally old "Maître Coq VI" from Yannick Bestaven and Louis Burton's "Bureau Vallée II". Both sail around 20 or 30 miles more on average, and Herrmann has now lost 50 miles on "Bureau Vallée II", with which he was on a par four days ago. All boats that "Seaexplorer" could basically keep up with.
Another of the new boats comes up from astern in big steps: Sébastien Simon's "Arkéa Paprec" is now really flying in the trade wind conditions. After the Frenchman got off to a weak start and did not master the first storms with good tactics, the speed drag race now seems to suit both skipper and boat. With 507 miles in 24 hours, he was the fastest, making up around 80 nautical miles on Boris Herrmann in just one night. Simon reports from on board that his boat is taking off brutally in the waves and landing accordingly.
Tactically, he predicts a race that will lead far south early on, close to the ice edge: "We have to sail around this high, which is why we are sailing so close to the coast of Brazil. Then comes a difficult front, it will be an extremely southerly route. We will certainly have to look for ice much earlier than at Cape Horn. In any case, it won't be a very direct route, a good route for a new Vendée record!"
Things are also getting exciting at the top today. Alex Thomson's "Hugo Boss" only has a wafer-thin eight-mile lead over Thomas Ruyant's "Linked Out". He and the "Apivia" sailing behind him have always been significantly faster than the Briton over the last few days, so it will be interesting to see whether Ruyant can take the lead today. Thomson is sailing the most westerly route, hoping for better wind angles for his boat, while Ruyant is sailing the more direct, much more easterly route. "Apivia" has positioned itself right in the middle. Who will come out on top at the Cape of Good Hope?
Further back, Nicolas Troussel has now arrived in Cape Verde with his demasted "Corum".
Andreas Fritsch
Editor Travel
