Charlie Dalin, skipper of Apivia, rounded Cape Horn some 14 hours and 56 minutes after Vendee race leader Yannick Bestaven on Maître Coq IV.
It is Dalin’s first ever passage of Cape Horn. He passed some seven miles south of the famous rocky island on the very tip of South America, passing into the Atlantic to complete his first time in the Southern Ocean.
Dalin: “The passage of Cape Horn went well at around 4 am and about 6 miles offshore, it was still dark but it was not pitch black so I could see it so the half-light, the shadow of the rock.”
“I could see the lights of the lighthouse, it was a rather cool moment for my first rounding of the Horn.”
Behind the two leaders Thomas Ruyant and Damien Seguin are more than 480 miles behind and the peloton will come into Cape Horn Monday evening on the heels of a new low bringing 30-35kts NWly winds and 6-6.5m seas.
Boris Herrmann, the German skipper is eighth this morning as Louis Burton elbows his way up the top ten, pressing hard on Bureau Vallée 2 to lie seventh.
Vendée Globe Leaders – Day 57 – Sun 3 Jan – Updated at 17:00 hrs UK
1st FRA Yannick Bestaven – Maître CoQ IV – 6,815 nm to finish – sailing at 8+ knots
2nd FRA Charlie Dalin – APIVIA – 68 nm
3rd FRA Thomas Ruyant – LinkedOut – 357 nm
4th FRA Damien Seguin – GROUPE APICIL – 359nm
5th FRA Benjamin DUTREUX – OMIA – WATER FAMILY – 553 nm
6th FRA Jean Le Cam – Yes we Cam! – 608 nm
7th FRA Louis Burton – BUREAU VALLEE 2 – 614 nm
8th FRA Boris Herrmann – SEAEXPLORER – 618 nm
9th FRA Isabelle JOSCHKE – MACSF – 653 nm
10th FRA Maxime SOREL – V and B-MAYENNE – 654 nm
11th FRA Giancarlo Pedote – PRYSMIAN GROUP – 687 nm
GBR:
16th GBR Pip Hare – Medallia – 2388 nm
23rd GBR Miranda Merron – Campagne de France – 4043 nm
Retired:
Nicolas Troussel, Alex Thomson, Kevin Escoffier, Alex Thomson, Sebastien Simon, Sam Davies, Fabrice Amedo