Vendee Globe - 1330 - 17/1/01

We can see what the chasing pack have to contend with as the forecast unrolls through the rest of the week. By Thursday morning the swirl of double high pressure has slid east. But rather than no wind, it looks more likely that the breeze will be highly changeable in both speed and direction. That means no grand strategy will get them through this, instead, constant effort on deck will be needed to sail the boat fast through the changing conditions.

In many ways this is the worst possible scenario for a group of solo sailors on the edge of exhaustion. The 24 hours a day requirement to adjust the course and sails to try to wriggle free of this awful weather pattern would be bad enough for a full crew sailing an overnight race, but on your own after a couple of months at sea?

And they have at least two full days of this nightmare, before a better formed high pressure area rolls off the coast of South America and interacts with a Southern Ocean low to set up a solid south-westerly on their race track (right).

By then Michel Desjoyeaux - and we hope Ellen - should be tagged onto the receding South Atlantic High in the top right-hand corner of the picture. If so, they will have got that crucial weather system ahead of the rest of the contenders for a podium place. It's going to be a testing and important couple of days.

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, Wednesday 17/1, with Distances to Finish from Race Office)

1 PRB (Desjoyeaux) 38.3S 37.3W 5599 nm
2 Kingfisher (MacArthur) 42.3S 46.5W +356 nm
3 Active Wear (Thiercelin) 47.1S 46.2W +612 nm
4 SILL Matines La Potagère (Jourdain) 48.4S 49.1W +735 nm
5 Sodebo (Coville) 48.6S 50.6W +792 nm
6 Union Bancaire Privée (Wavre) 51.1S 56.3W +1016 nm
7 Whirlpool (Chabaud) 55.3S 74W +1781 nm
8 EBP EspritPME Gartmore (Hall) 54.6S 88W +2257 nm
9 VM Matériaux (Carpentier) 55.5S 109.3W +2924 nm
10 Voila.fr (Gallay) 55.2S 110W +2946 nm
11 Team Group 4 (Golding) 56.4S 112.1W +2994 nm
12 Nord Pas de Calais - Chocolats du Monde (Seeten) 56.1S 116.2W +3140 nm