The picture and video of the day today was sent by Boris Herrmann, who came up from astern with significantly more speed and sailed right through the middle of the group of chasers around Jean Le Cam ("Yes We Cam"), Damien Seguin ("Groupe Apicil"), Benjamin Dutreux ("Omia Water Family") and Louis Burton's "Bureau Vallée 2". At times he had visual contact with all four competitors in the best weather. Apparently his "Sea Explorer" is faster than the other boats in these light conditions with winds of around 10 knots under partly blue skies and smooth seas. So today the German was able to close the gap of almost 70 nautical miles that he had yesterday to the boats in front of him.
There was also more good news: He has completed the repair of the first damaged hydrogenerator, and the second is also as good as finished. As he reported from on board today during the Vendée Globe midday update, his boat is now in very good condition again and he is ready to attack more in the Pacific: "The last two weeks have been difficult for me. I couldn't find a way to sail the boat fast. But now it's going well!"
Boris Herrmanns sails in sight of three other boats
Herrmann had already overtaken Seguin and Dutreux at the last ranking at 3 p.m. and quickly caught up with Jean Le Cam. "Bureau Vallée 2" was later able to keep up the pace quite well. However, Louis Burton's boat is handicapped: the video shows that he is sailing with the first reef; Herrmann mentions that he has problems with the mainsail mast track.
Ahead of the chasers, Charlie Dalin seems to be making progress with the repair of his damage to the lower part of the foil box, after jibing today and almost stopping the boat for a few hours, he was sailing at 14.5 knots again behind the two now leaders in the 15 o'clock ranking. It will be interesting to see whether the repair has already been successfully completed, as the team has not yet published an update.
Video of the meeting of the 5 boats at sea
