Who let the dogs out

Depression finaly arrived and gear shifting on boats begun. In situations like that is allways tricky to find the right time to change down from big spinnaker to medium, from medium to reefed medium and at the end the small or Code5. Main is basically just following the kites and 2 reefs with code 5 is usually configuration you can sail up to 35 knots if the waves are not to bad.
But since the fleet is running ahead of depression in deep water see should be reasonably ok and that is also shown in 24 runs from the fleet. I don't understand why organizer is not suplying this data but quick calculation from the 20:00 scheds is showing Bertrand making respectfull 282 miles, Joerg more conservative 255 and previous leader running on southerly route Lucas serie like 225 miles in 24 hours.
This is not unexpected since Bertrand is the only one who has shown proper speed in this conditions on last Transat. The rest of protos have to expand their confort zones a bit further.

And so we come to Serie guys. I don't know what Xavier Macaire is eating for breakfast but his 267 miles in 24 hours are Chuck Norris stuff. He has balls of steel and enough knowledge and experience to carry them. Mind you these are mere numbers from 2 scheds, real top mileages will be higher. I strongly believe that Xavier on a well prepared modern proto could break 300 miles barrier to which we came close with 294 miles in 24 hours on 2007 Transat.

Otherwise the wind is droping and we can expect Joerg with his impressive boatspeed in normal conditions clinch some miles back from Bertrand. That said north is the currently the place to be since depression is moving away and Azores high is expanding from the south. It looks like that fleet will enjoy 3 days of nice sailing before they meet their last test in shape of quick deep depresion that looks like to catch them in most challenging spot - Bay of Biscay.