This leading trio are now less than 20 miles apart. Loïck Peyron and Jean-Baptiste Le Vaillant, onboard Gitana Eighty, should pass the Canaries at the end of the day.

Still in third spot among the multihulls, Gitana 11 has been flying since leaving the Canaries at 17:30 yesterday. On board, Lionel Lemonchois and Yann Guichard are going all out to make up for the time they lost on this unavoidable stop. This morning, they are travelling at 27 knots, the maximum polar speed (technical routing term used to indicate the boat's level of performance in relation to a given weather situation and route).

Loïck Peyron, at 10:00 this morning: “We're spending a lot of time at the helm as we're heavily sailed in irregular winds. It's safer than putting on the automatic pilot, but also a lot more tiring. It's not easy to sail when it's pitch black… there was no moon last night! Everything's ok on board, we've recovered well and it's a pleasure to be sailing with my mate Desjoyeaux! Passing the Canaries will be a crucial and we need to prepare ourselves in order to negotiate it as well as possible. We're like the three musketeers: it's hard to say at the moment whether it will be Athos, Portos or Aramis who'll be first to save the queen!”