The leader is now sailing into the worst weather of the week, with forecast gusts of about 60 knots and seas of 8 metres or more, according to the race office.
How big is Guillou’s lead, really?
The gap between first and second read 870 miles at the start of the week, 911 on Sunday 8 November and 890 on Monday. On Tuesday it jumped to 1,282, then read 1,285 on Wednesday, 1,288 on Thursday, 1,267 on Friday and 1,276 on Saturday. That overnight leap of nearly 400 miles is mostly bookkeeping. The tracker recalculated Guillou’s remaining distance after he passed the first of the waypoints on the Indian Ocean leg, and in that update he actually sailed about 177 miles to Beskardes’ 109.
Since then the pair have been closely matched. In the 24 hours to Saturday’s update Guillou made 144 miles and Beskardes 140, the best and second-best runs in the fleet.
The storm, and the knockdown aboard Miss Beagle
The race office reported that a wave knocked Miss Beagle down in the storm sweeping across the leaders and damaged the companionway. The washboards were forced out but stayed on their retaining lines, and the next wave came inside. Beskardes’ own recordings tell it as it happened. The channels could no longer hold the boards, there was water everywhere, and he needed a screwdriver and a calm moment between waves. He found the screwdriver, fixed a piece of wood across the opening and made a temporary repair. The race office says his Starlink went over the side as well and was recovered. Even so, Miss Beagle made 140 miles in the 24 hours to the update, and the race office expected conditions to ease for him on Saturday afternoon, with a more secure repair to follow.
For Guillou the hard going is still ahead. The race office expects the difficult conditions around Solarem to last about another 36 hours, easing early on Monday, with big seas persisting after the wind drops. Race office footage from the leader’s boat showed a heaving sea and boat speeds above 18 knots on the waves.
Third place changed hands several times
Etienne Messikommer’s Bernard started the week well, with a 181-mile run on Sunday, the best in the fleet, as he closed on the Cape of Good Hope. His lead over Henry Wootton’s Privateer for third shrank from 47 miles on Monday to 34 on Tuesday, then Wootton edged ahead on Wednesday’s published figures, Messikommer retook the place on Thursday and Wootton went back in front on Friday. The order flipped because the boats were close, currents differed and some positions lagged.
By Saturday, Bernard made just 38 miles, the shortest run in the fleet, and Privateer made 78, which left Wootton about 65 miles clear in third. The race office says Messikommer had enough wind for 4 to 5 knots through the water but was fighting a strong adverse current, while Wootton’s route kept him clear of it. Behind them, Daniel Pinsky’s Exodus made 191 miles at Thursday’s update, the best in the fleet, and is now about nine miles behind Bernard for fourth.
Messikommer did find time to mark the Cape. In a recording made on Thursday 12 November, with Bernard near 40 degrees south and 20 degrees east, he describes passing the Cape in the night and pouring a small glass of rum for Neptune. The champagne is saved until he is clear of what he calls the long arm of the Cape, around 30 degrees east.
Small victories, zip ties and a pair of lost glasses
Guillou patched a torn jacket sleeve and listed his three essentials for any boat, which included a Leatherman and a can of WD-40, adding that with those you can fix anything. His laundry was hanging out on what he cheerfully called the veranda, and he sailed past what he described as a pile of floating islands.
Beskardes boiled new potatoes in seawater, pointing out that they came pre-salted, and crowned a zip tie on the backstay as the best invention ever. In the storm he decided cooking was not worth the risk, and settled for biscuits, hazelnuts and marshmallows with a cheerful “Opa!”. In another recording he could not find his glasses because everything had moved, so he tried to read a satellite message on the tracker through his sunglasses.
Pär Nyman, whom the race office has nicknamed Nonstop Pär, reported so many seabirds around Lazy Otter that he called the place a bird museum, even though there was still no albatross. He also cut away the burnt part of a solar regulator and got it working again, and found a new sail setting that gives Lazy Otter more speed.
Gunnar Christensen kept the coffee flowing aboard Pompoen. He spent the week chasing sun for his solar panels, met his first albatross, watched a humpback breach while he checked his whale book, and on Friday the 13th mistook a southern right whale dolphin for a penguin.
Wootton double-checked his sextant sights because the daily mileage seemed too good to be true, and a favourable current turned out to be doing the work. Daniel Pinsky reported a brilliant day that included four huge orcas surfing five-metre waves behind Exodus. Guido Cantini, heading towards the Agulhas current with some trepidation, can hear other entrants on the radio but cannot reach them.
Who is still racing in the Golden Globe Race?
Ten skippers are still racing. Six of the 16 starters have retired. Guy deBoer’s race ended on 8 November when a Brazilian Navy helicopter took him off Spirit, which was left drifting in the South Atlantic. Mara Kveseth announced her retirement on 7 November, and the race office has confirmed that Andrea Lodolo’s race is over and that he is heading for Cape Town. Here is the tracker order at 20:00 UTC on Saturday 14 November, with miles to go and the distance each boat covered in the previous 24 hours.
| Pos | Skipper | Boat | Miles to go | 24h run |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Damien Guillou | Solarem | 17,168 | 144 |
| 2 | Ertan Beskardes | Miss Beagle | 18,444 | 140 |
| 3 | Henry Wootton | Privateer | 18,791 | 78 |
| 4 | Etienne Messikommer | Bernard | 18,855 | 38 |
| 5 | Daniel Pinsky | Exodus | 18,864 | 108 |
| 6 | Guido Cantini | Hannah of Cowes | 19,151 | 94 |
| 7 | Pär Nyman | Lazy Otter | 19,265 | 80 |
| 8 | Isa Rosli | Olleanna | 19,625 | 60 |
| 9 | Gunnar Christensen | Pompoen | 19,651 | 122 |
| 10 | Matt Woodside | Tipi Haere | 19,798 | 125 |
What to watch in the week ahead
This is our own reading of PredictWind forecast screenshots taken on Saturday 14 November, not routing advice, as entrants are not given weather routing under the race rules. It is a forecast, so conditions on the water may differ. On Sunday our read shows a band of 30 to 40 knots to the south-west of the main pack, which sits on its lighter northern edge. By Monday there is a lull of roughly 5 to 15 knots along the pack’s latitude east of the Cape. On Tuesday the two models we compare both show a compact low south-east of Durban, with the American GFS stronger than the European ECMWF, so we treat that part as uncertain. Use it as a guide only.
Watch whether the leader’s pace holds as the storm passes, how quickly Beskardes can make a more secure repair, whether Wootton keeps third from Messikommer, and whether Pinsky can overhaul Bernard for fourth. For the story so far, see our previous weekly report, Guillou’s earlier battle with South Atlantic gales, week one of the race and how the fleet first split on the breeze.
