Bits and bobs of film show the team mucking about with the challenge of French, English and Chinese – Kevin Escoffier asks Black “how do you make a joke out of going fast with the east wind in Chinese?”
Then we see Carolijn Brouwer, who is always all smiles, offering a bag of liquorice to her teammates. “You cannot go around the world without some Dutch liquorice,” she tells a rather bemused navigator Pascal Bidegorry.
And then we see the sailors mulling over what they would like most, if they were back on land. For French Vendee Globe star Jeremie Beyou that would be to see his kids; for Carolijn it would be a hot shower and for Black it would be to be back home in China for Chinese New Year.
The news on the racecourse is that Dongfeng is still in fifth place and – crucially – still enjoying a useful margin over her rival MAPFRE which, on the 12th day at sea, is seven miles behind.
The two red boats are 187 and 194 miles behind the new leader, Team Sun Hung Kai Scallywag, and have been making gains as the leading boats sail into ever lighter winds north of Santa Ana Island.
Right now the six boats are roughly in line astern but, as they head further south, the west-northwest breeze is going to die and swing round into the southwest and then the real fun of this leg will begin in the so-called “second Doldrums”.
This is an expanding black hole on the racecourse, blocking the way south, and there looks to be no easy way through it with routing models showing widely varying options.
The big danger in this part of the world is clouds which can stall a boat for hours, as MAPFRE experienced a couple of days ago. The latest victim in this regard has been Team AkzoNobel which had been leading but got delayed under a cloud allowing Scallywag to sail on by.
In another interesting clip from Dongfeng, Bidegorry is shown on deck pointing to a couple of clouds he doesn’t like the look of, on the horizon. “I think we have to go between the clouds here,” he tells a shirtless Caudrelier on the wheel. “There is no win here,” he adds.
Latest position report at 0700 UTC:
1. Team Sun Hung Kai / Scallywag DTF: 1915nm
2. Team AkzoNobel DTL : 21.9nm
3. Team Brunel DTL: 119.6nm
4.Turn the Tide on Plastic. DTL: 146.4nm
5. Dongfeng Race Team. DTL: 181.8nm
6. MAPFRE. DTL: 187.6nm
7. Vestas 11th Hour Racing, DNS
