Weather update with Marcel Van Triest, Dongfeng Race Team meteorologist

"Yesterday, we had a compression of the fleet before Aarhus. The boats arrived upwind and the fleet regrouped. MAPFRE was so close to us that we stayed together when we left. It did not make the rubber band like was the case after with Vestas and Team Brunel."

Then, there was a new compression last night and this was with a much lighter wind. Going up a second time in Norway is not making the situation easy because the wind will be very variable. Under the mountains, there are turbulences. And as soon as they have bypassed this virtual mark, it’s starting again with a Northerly wind which will increase.

The pace will be fast then with a big choice to make between a road inside the TSS (exclusion zone) in North Holland. The angle is the tightest from Norway but the road is a little shorter. Or they may choose to go inside the TSS on a slightly longer road but at a very fast drag along the Danish coast. Only this can end almost upwind when passing between the TSS and the islands in North Holland.

In any case, the fleet will compress again at the end in the anticyclone. And with the new course mark, there is no hope that they will arrive before the current reversal, Sunday which is at 11:00 in the morning so they will have the tide against them, with about 1.5 knots of current for 3 to 5 knots of wind.

There will be suspense until the end…