Vendee Globe Ocean Racing, Le Cléac’h Back On Top

Like two boxers standing toe-to-toe and swinging from the hip, Armel Le Cléac’h (Banque Populaire) and Francois Gabart (MACIF) are trading blows with every ranking. Le Cléac’h landed one overnight – their day in the southern hemisphere - as they approached the Auckland Islands. Le Cléac’h is 2.5 miles ahead and just two miles northeast of Gabart. 

Both skippers have held the lead for just 15 hours before being unseated in the longer stretch of nine hours between ranking.

Le Cléac'h (Banque Populaire), was slightly faster at the 0400hrs (UTC) ranking  (averaging 19.3 knots to Gabart’s 17.8 knots over the last hour).

With both pushing each other like this and combined with a mixture of their skill, superior boat speed, the chances of the fleet catching them diminish.

They have a northerly wind of 30 knots, which will gradually turn northwest this morning. If the sea is relatively easy for the moment, with a four-metre swell rolling in the direction of the wind, the next few hours could be more uncomfortable as the waves will rise sharply as they approach the Campbell Plateau, where the sea bed shelves back, sometimes sharply from 5000 to less than 200 metres in places. Watch those nosedives you two.