Vendee Globe - D. Wavre expected in the early hours of tomorrow

Dominique Wavre (Temenos) was 191 miles from the finish at 0400 GMT this morning. He is currently around 80 miles north of Gijon (Spain). 51.7 miles separate him from Sébastien Josse (VMI). The tail of the fleet are racking up some fairly small averages, Benoît Parnaudeau (Max Havelaar/Best Western) making only 108 miles over the past 24 hours!

What time can we expect Dominique Wavre (Temenos) off Les Sables d’Olonne? Good question! In fact, Dominique was 190 miles from the finish at 0400 GMT this morning, making 10 knot averages but a VMG of just 2.8 knots. He continues to advance along towards the base of the Bay of Biscay in an ENE in an attempt to touch the SE wind shift enabling him to lengthen his stride on a direct course towards Les Sables D’Olonne at an sustained pace. Until he tacks it’s difficult to give a precise ETA, but it looks like it may well be the second half of the night. Interestingly, while the top trio arrive at the Vendée port by the North, their two pursuers will be arriving via the South!

The same scenario for Sébastien Josse (VMI) who is downwind of Temenos. The youngest skipper of the race is 51 miles astern of Dominique and should finish five or six hours behind fourth place. A spectacular duel - just hours separating them after 40,000 kilometres of racing!

Behind the race continues, Jean-Pierre Dick (Virbac-Paprec) 300 miles to the South-West of the Azores, is hooked onto the Western edge of the Azores high. Jean-Pierre is making some good averages, as are Conrad Humphreys (Hellomoto) and Joé Seeten (Arcelor Dunkerque) in the NE trades. The tail of the fleet are experiencing light winds except for Anne Liardet (Roxy) who has made 233 miles in the past 4 hours, over 600 miles behind Benoît Parnaudeau (Max Havelaar/Best Western). The skipper from La Rochelle has barely made 4.5 knot averages over the past 24 hours.