In the midday radio chat, the skipper, calm as ever, offered us an objective update of the situation:
“I'm trying to keep my spirits up! Even though it's really hard to sail under these conditions. All the weather info for the last 4 days has been off the mark! I can't make head nor tail of it… I don't really know what's in store, so I'm staying on the direct route. But the problem is, this weather could well last until the finish, whereas I'd initially planned to pick up the established trade winds after the transition phase. I'm spending a lot of time making minor adjustments, but the winds are so unstable that I'm getting tired out very quickly. Last night was really hard work because about every 45 minutes, I kept radically changing the weather pattern and therefore the sail configuration due to the large storms that were literally swallowing up the wind. In these conditions, you do a lot of manoeuvring for next to no results! The hardest thing is to see those ahead disappear off without any real hope of catching them … the wind's dying down behind me and in the meantime, they're increasing the gap. I need to watch those behind me in order to contain them, but as they are also more to the south, it's no foregone conclusion. The current scenario is not very encouraging, but when I look at how I started the race, I'm quite satisfied and really enjoying myself on Domaine du Mont d'Arbois.”
Ranking - Wednesday 11 April at 03:00 pm :
Rank
Boat / Skipper
Latitude
Longitude
Speed.
Cap
Dist. arrival
Dist. 1st
1
Défi MousquetairesThomas Rouxel
13 30.74' N
49 11.22' W
8.8
253
723.8
0.0
2
BostikCharles Caudrelier
13 31.30' N
49 07.05' W
8.9
253
726.1
2.3
3
SojasunLiz Wardley
15 25.82' N
48 06.79' W
7.8
248
767.1
43.3
4
A.ST GroupeMarc Emig
19 39.13' N
48 22.33' W
9.1
249
778.2
54.4
5
GedimatArmel Tripon
20 20.69' N
48 18.78' W
8.9
236
794.7
70.9
6
FinancoNicolas Troussel
11 19.57' N
48 35.92' W
9.6
269
795.8
72.0
7
Groupe CéléosRonan Treussart
18 52.92' N
47 31.94' W
9.2
243
814.7
90.9
8
LuisinaEric Drouglazet
19 27.70' N
47 38.04' W
8.8
244
815.4
91.6
9
Les MousquetairesBertrand de Broc
18 41.92' N
47 22.88' W
9.1
247
821.9
98.1
10
TheoliaRobert Nagy
21 54.40' N
48 22.85' W
8.0
249
824.1
100.3
11
Aquarelle.comYannick Bestaven
16 49.59' N
47 07.11' W
8.8
249
824.4
100.6
12
Banque PopulaireJeanne Grégoire
14 18.24' N
47 02.94' W
9.3
245
831.1
107.3
13
Cercle VertGildas Morvan
18 03.02' N
47 00.36' W
9.0
248
835.7
111.9
14
LenzeFranck Le Gal
12 29.36' N
46 28.08' W
9.0
237
892.9
169.1
15
Le Comptoir ImmobilierGildas Mahé
18 54.78' N
46 01.64' W
8.7
240
899.3
175.5
16
Domaine du Mont d'ArboisT Duprey du Vorsent
23 13.89' N
46 42.65' W
7.3
244
941.6
217.8