While conditions seem optimal at the back, the news of the day is happening at the front of the race with the capsizing of Kévin Escoffier, more than 4,000 km from TSE-4myplanete which has to watch this from afar.
As four IMOCAs have diverted to assist Kévin Escoffier, who suffered water ingress causing a capsize, the race continues. Unfortunately, being too far from the incident, Alexia Barrier cannot participate in the rescue operation. She is expected to arrive on site in a week if conditions remain as favorable.
Except that the weather is expected to slightly worsen before the beginning of the weekend according to the latest forecasts. “The sea is really nicer than north of Brazil where we had a rough, cross sea. The trade wind at sea level is well organized. It’s just the wind that is still a little disturbed, but it’s not going to improve. The further south we go, the more we will have strong squalls at night. In light of what I observed on the weather reports, it seems quite unstable, so we’re taking advantage of the light at night to manage the unexpected gusts of wind,” explains Alexia, who is enjoying exceptional sunshine conditions close to the equator.
While the Maralpine is still sailing at a good pace with an average of over 500 km covered in 24 hours, she sees Clément Giraud’s IMOCA closing in very strongly over the past few hours, even overtaking her by the end of the day yesterday.
An anecdotal loss of position at a time when the competitors at the front of the race are busy trying to find their friend stranded on his life raft since yesterday afternoon (2:46 pm at the time the damage was reported). Although the search was halted for the night, Jean Le Cam, the first to arrive on site, had managed to establish visual contact before losing track of Kévin Escoffier at the end of the day. Assisted by Yannick Bestaven, Boris Herrmann, and Sébastien Simon, the search resumed this morning around 4:40 am.
