A flurry of finishers today leaves us with 25 boats still racing in the IMOCA fleet this morning. Justine Mettraux (Teamwork.net) crossed the finish early this morning in seventh place, taking the title of first woman across the line. She has a great boat in the old Charal, and fought hard until the end with those around her – I’m sure she’ll be very pleased with how her race went.
Benjamin Dutreux (Guyot Environnement – Water Family) will be the next boat to finish and the first of my previous boats. At the time of writing, he’s on the west side of Basse Terre and experiencing the joys of the wind shadow that the island brings; boat speed is under two knots and his heading changes as he’s searching for what little there is.
Around 100 miles back, Pip Hare (Medallia) is in 11th place and may just be able to take 10th if all goes to plan. It’s tightly fought in her group of four boats, and any wrong move will be costly.
The pontoons in Pointe-a-Pitre will quickly fill up with IMOCAs as we may see another seven boats finish in the next day or so. Every sailor that has hit the dock so far has remarked at how demanding this race is and how little rest they’ve been able to take. The Route du Rhum is not easy, and so it makes finishing all the more special – congratulations to everyone so far!