Charlie Dalin took second place from Thomas Rettant.

-

Loic VENANCE / AFP

Things continue to move ahead of the Vendée.

On the night of Thursday to Friday, Charlie Dalin, who has finally put his wheelbarrow of seeds in the garage, took second place from Thomas Rettant.

In front of them, Bestaven is still leading the way, but our top three are in a hollow area and are advancing in slow motion.

We summarize all this for you while you pour the coffee.

Classification at 9 o'clock

1. Yannick Bestaven (Maître Coq IV) 11,636 nautical miles from the finish

2. Charlie Dalin (Apivia) 103 nautical miles from the leader

3. Thomas Rettant (LinkedOut) 177 nautical miles from the leader

4. Jean Le Cam (Yes we Cam!) 418 nautical miles from the leader

5. Boris Hermann (Sea Explorer) 435 nautical miles behind the leader

In front of it idles

The leading trio is still made up of Yannick Bestaven, Charlie Dalin and Thomas Rettant, that's not moving, however it does not move very quickly because blocked in a windless area.

Indeed, the three boats are struggling to exceed ten knots.

Worse, for the leader Bestaven, we are really skating at 5.5 knots… Fortunately their lead over the pursuers was substantial, so they are not really threatened by the group of five still led by Jean Le Cam.

Charlie Dalin happy to find the rays of the sun

The Le Havre skipper does seem to have put his recent struggles behind him after the damage to his port foil system.

This one went around and left Thomas Rettant in his retro.

And if he faces a lack of wind as we have just explained, he nevertheless seemed happy with the navigation and weather conditions, as he explained to the 5 o'clock shift.

"A few hours after crossing the border between the Pacific and the Indian, everything calmed down," he said.

It's amazing !

As if there was a real barrier… I have a sea that is much easier to manage.

We are going to pass under Macquarie Island and it feels good a little light and sun!

".

Loud tries a blow💡


The north road of @LinkedOut_VG makes the Landerneau talk behind the carto.

Yesterday evening at the 22h check-in, the Dunkirk was frankly leaving the road due East and his playmates. ➡️ https://t.co/2fZQULNd9r pic.twitter.com/slDbPlaa0g

- Vendée Globe (@VendeeGlobe) December 18, 2020

Thomas Rouillard's poker move

At the stroke of 10 p.m. Thursday, during the last score of the day, the Dunkirk decided to leave the road frankly

due east to opt for a new trajectory.

If Rouillard has not yet expressed himself to reveal the underside of this daring choice, Charmie Dalin has taken care of doing it for him.

Explanations:

“There was a very good option to take.

I think Thomas had planned to do this before he invaded the sail locker.

There was a really good shot to play but the timing was tight and his problem took him out of timing I think.

You shouldn't hang around because the door was closing quickly.

I fully understand why he is there.

It is an option which required a strong investment at the beginning, which required to lose ground while sailing in light wind, to gain some afterwards.

It's not totally dead for him.

The next few hours will tell us if the

20 Minutes

partner

made the right choice.

Behind, soon a foursome

So far there were five of them and they were slipping through a pocket handkerchief on the scale of the planet (60 nautical miles between the boats!), But there will soon be only four.

Louis Burton had no other choice but to take shelter near Macquarie Island to carry out repairs.

Jean Le Cam is still leading the rest of the group made up of Boris Hermann (who made his entry into the top 5 on Thursday), Benjamin Dutreux and Damien Seguin.

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