The eastwards course towards Royan may look quite straightforward but it is far from it. During last night there were big holes in the breeze and with a horrible leftover sea conditions were not easy at all. Tom Dolan (Smurfit Kappa - Kingspan) and Alexis Thomas (Wings of the Ocean) are pretty much side by side in the lead but they have gained against third placed Gaston Morvan (Région Bretagne-CMB Performance) who is now about six miles behind. For the meantime it seems like a little bit of rich-get-richer for the top two who are making just over eight knots of boatspeed with Charlotte Yven in fourth on Skipper MACIF 2023 sailing at just over five.
Thick cloud masked the stars last night hampering the good progress of the skippers creating squalls and lulls. "I have just launched the gennaker, we have a very irregular wind in strength and direction, with squalls passing, it is not easy. There is no moon and from time to time the stars are hidden by large cloud masses. In terms of course there should not be many options until Royan, but, between the squalls, the wind variations and the speed, there are still things that can happen. A stage is never over, I don't want to worry. I just make the boat move as fast as possible and a lot of things can happen until the finish", reported Élodie Bonnafous (QUEGUINER - La Vie en Rose), ninth this morning.
Loïs Berrehar (Skipper Macif 2022), currently 7th, echoes the lack of strategic options en route to Royan, "It will be the procession from west to east. I have never done the route in this direction. We're going to have to manage things between rest, to stay lucid and stay at full throttle, to keep trimming. The wind is from the north, northwest which is between 10 knots and 20 to 25 knots. I've been under gennaker since nightfall in a bit of 4x4 mode. Tom Dolan (Smurfit Kappa – Kingspan) has opened a nice gap we're going to have to apply ourselves to make up as much ground as we can.”