Nearly every Vendée Globe, including this ninth edition, has delivered a sting in the tail of one sort or another to unfortunate solo skippers. While the most damaging this time was Boris Herrmann’s collision with a Spanish fishing boat at 90 miles from the finish line, the last miles are often the most tense, as the most recent finisher Manu Cousin noted last Saturday morning:

“At about 40 miles to the finish I had a moment where I finally felt I would make it and could finally release myself and enjoy knowing what I was accomplishing.” He grinned on the dock on Port Olona two days ago.

Alexia Barrier (TSE-4myplanet) is still suffering from her back injury but is keeping her morale up. She is in regular contact with the race doctor Jean-Yves Chauve and she has already medical appraisals scheduled for her arrival which should be February 27 or 28.

Ari Huusela (FIN, STARK): “I am good. Yesterday when there was no wind at all I was just trying to enjoy the warm day and the nice weather and by evening the wind started to build and it was quite good. Of course it turned against me and I had to tack this morning as first I was going to the west and so I tacked and was going east and so no real progress towards the finish line. But now I am heading north and my speed is now eight to nine knots and so I hope this wind lasts so I can get through this local doldrums and get out to the low pressure winds.

THE NEXT ETA (Estimated arrival times)

It was an overjoyed, expansive Manuel Cousin who crossed the finish line today in 23rd place before enjoying a rousing welcome back to his adopted home town of Les Sables d'Olonne. This is the best of of Manu at his press conference...
How do you feel Manu?
I feel so happy to have crossed that finish line, to have come up this famous channel. Honestly, I hardly dared think about it before now because there were times I was good and then hard times would come and I wondered if I would make it.