Louis Burton, the 35 year old Saint Malo skipper of Bureau Vallée 2 was the first Vendée Globe skipper to break back into the northern hemisphere last night, crossing the Equator at 1911hrs UTC last night. Just less than one hour later and some 50 miles to the east of him Charlie Dalin crossed second and 37 minutes later, close to the wake of Burton, Germany’s Boris Herrmann also returned to the ‘home’ hemisphere. So just one hour and 37 minutes separated the top three boats and on the early morning rankings that equates to just 22 miles between first and third in terms of distance to finish. When Yannick Bestaven brought Maître Coq IV across at 0236hrs, 3hrs 30mins after fourth placed LinkedOut the top five had crossed within seven hours.
And so increasingly it is looking like this Vendée Globe will be decided after the Canary Islands and who best negotiates a high pressure ridge from there and hooks into the low pressure system which accelerates the leaders towards Les Sables d’Olonne and the finish line.
