Longitude 180 °: the antimeridian! This early afternoon, Yannick Bestaven was able to see on his GPS that the degrees of longitude East had taken two more letters, West.

On the morning of this 39th day of racing, Yannick Bestaven (Maître CoQ IV) took the lead in the Vendée Globe. By succeeding Thomas Rettant (LinkedOut), the Rochelais becomes the 8th leader of this Vendée Globe which, this afternoon, experienced the compensation awarded by the race jury to the baffled solo sailors to assist Kevin Escoffier on November 30.

Since the passage of the Finnish skipper, Ari Huusela, at the longitude of the Cape of Good Hope this afternoon, the 27 IMOCAs still in the race are now all sailing in the Indian Ocean on a great garland of 3,700 miles long.

This morning, Kévin Escoffier left Jean Le Cam’s boat and was successfully recovered by the Nivôse frigate of the French Navy which is heading for Reunion.

Alex Thomson arrived in Cape Town in the morning. Sébastien Simon is expected to moor there between Saturday and Sunday. For the two men, the South African port is the last stop in this 9th Vendée Globe. They are only 29 sailors in the race.