Vendee Globe - 1330 - 18/1/01

Behind Ellen, Marc Thiercelin has other problems than the weather, "I’m trying to install a system to climb the mast. The whole port side rigging is loose. The mast is holding up by the grace of God! I have to get a move on and sort it out."

So far, he's making good progress and seems to have his nose in the same north-westerly breeze as Ellen at the moment, Thiercelin said this morning, "Yesterday I succeeded in staying on the edge of the anticyclone which is ahead of me. I kept the wind and managed to make some ground over the guys behind me. I’m juggling between going fast and not losing too much in heading. The wind is good: 18 to 20 knots from the north-west."

But that mess of isobars is going to move east quite quickly (in The Race, Innovation Explorer have just swerved to avoid it). And the new wind will fill from the south-west, to the benefit of the back-markers in this front group of six.

By tonight Thomas Coville and Dominique Wavre should be getting the first blast of a solid south-westerly, pushing them down the track and closing the gaps fast.

The forecast for Friday morning (right) shows that new high pressure flowing off the Andes and pushing the south-westerly breeze - and the backmarkers - up the course towards the leaders.

Meanwhile, the South Atlantic High in front of Michel Desjoyeaux shows no sign of declining and letting him through easily. But there is plenty of potential for local weirdness in this forecast. Look at that jet of north-westerly breeze off the little low pressure near Ellen's current position.

Even if I was a gambling man, I wouldn't be anxious to put money down on the winners and losers from this scenario. We can only wait and see.

Map images courtesy of Virtual Spectator, click here to go to the VS site.

Please note that two different methods of calculating the Distance to Finish are being used, one by Virtual Spectator and one by the Vendee Globe Race Office, we will try to always make it clear which we are using!

Link to the madforsailing form guide.

Rankings (0500 GMT except where stated, Thursday 18/1, with Distances to Finish from Race Office)

1 PRB (Desjoyeaux) (at 03:00 GMT) 36.4S 34.2W 5433 nm
2 Kingfisher (MacArthur) 40.3S 43W +344 nm
3 Active Wear (Thiercelin) 44.1S 41.3W +535 nm
4 SILL Matines La Potagère (Jourdain) 45.5S 47.4W +722 nm
5 Sodebo (Coville) 47S 50.5W +844 nm
6 Union Bancaire Privée (Wavre) 49S 52.3W +976 nm
7 Whirlpool (Chabaud) (at 06:00 GMT) 56S 66.3W +1645 nm
8 EBP EspritPME Gartmore (Hall) (at 06:00 GMT) 56.3S 80.4W +2179 nm
9 VM Matériaux (Carpentier) (at 07:00 GMT) 56S 101.2W +2817 nm
10 Voila.fr (Gallay) (at 07:00 GMT) 55.4S 101.2W +2826 nm
11 Team Group 4 (Golding) (at 07:00 GMT) 56.1S 101.5W +2828 nm
12 Nord Pas de Calais - Chocolats du Monde (Seeten) (at 04:00 GMT) 55.3S 108.5W +3057 nm