Pasta in a pan at night, soggy pilot books drying on a cabin floor and a new fourth place by a single mile: there is plenty happening across the Golden Globe Race fleet. Behind Damien Guillou the fight for the minor places is tightening, while the back markers are still waiting for a decent breeze.
Damien Guillou on Solarem continues to lead the Golden Globe Race 2026; today by 755 nautical miles from Ertan Beskardes on Miss Beagle, at the tracker update around 20:00 UTC on Thursday 5 November (Day 60). That is 25 miles tighter than the 780 on Day 59. Guillou has 18,764 miles to go to Les Sables d'Olonne. Etienne Messikommer on Bernard is third, and Henry Wootton on Privateer has moved into fourth, one mile ahead of Mara Kveseth on Showgirl. The race office has flagged stronger wind for the front of the fleet from early Friday UTC, while the middle of the pack runs into lighter air.
Golden Globe Race at a glance (Day 60, about 20:00 UTC, 5 November)
Leader: Damien Guillou, Solarem, 18,764 miles to the finish
Second: Ertan Beskardes, Miss Beagle, 755 miles behind the leader
Third: Etienne Messikommer, Bernard, 1,254 miles behind the leader
Fourth and fifth: Henry Wootton, Privateer, one mile ahead of Mara Kveseth, Showgirl
Best 24-hour run: Wootton with 157 miles, then Messikommer with 146 and Beskardes with 144
Slowest 24-hour runs: Isa Rosli and Matt Woodside, 67 miles each
Golden Globe Race 2026: distance sailed
Tracker snapshots, start to Day 60
Source: Golden Globe Race live tracker (Yellow Brick)
Who is leading the Golden Globe Race?
Guillou still leads, although Beskardes has gained another 25 miles. Guillou recorded 107 miles over the previous 24 hours, while Beskardes managed 144. The race office's Facebook update early on Thursday UTC had him close to the rhumb line at about 5.4 knots with stronger wind on the way, and by the evening briefing he was reported crawling through a light patch and waiting for breeze to fill in from behind.
Guillou has been in the Indian Ocean ever since he slipped past the Cape of Good Hope. His 755-mile lead is still larger than the 707 miles that separate third place, Messikommer, from last, Christensen.
Who is fourth in the Golden Globe Race now?
Wootton. The tracker has his Privateer on 20,076 miles to go and Kveseth's Showgirl on 20,077, so the gap is one mile, with Messikommer 58 miles ahead of them in third. Wootton covered 157 miles in the previous 24 hours, the best run in the fleet, while Kveseth managed 122. We covered his 156-mile run in our Day 59 report, so that is two days in a row above 155 miles.
Andrea Lodolo on BiBi is next on 20,100, 24 miles behind Wootton, although his position and Pinsky's had not refreshed since 16:00 UTC. Lodolo has chosen to sit well south of the pack on the direct line to the finish, and the race office's update had him happy there. Daniel Pinsky on Exodus follows on 20,153.
What is happening in the middle and back of the Golden Globe Race fleet?
The fleet is splitting in two. The six boats from second to seventh averaged about 138 miles in the last 24 hours. The four at the back averaged about 70: Par Nyman on Lazy Otter made 73, Gunnar Christensen on Pompoen 72, and Isa Rosli on Olleanna and Matt Woodside on Tipi Haere 67 each. Between the two groups sits Guido Cantini on Hannah of Cowes, eighth with 112 miles and 252 miles clear of Nyman in ninth.
The back markers are struggling in the light wind under the South Atlantic high. In the race office's Thursday update they were doing somewhere between about one and a half and just over two and a half knots. Christensen, who apologised to the wind a few days ago, is not alone in having run out of patience with it.
Pasta, wet books and hot chocolate
Messikommer found time for a proper meal on Wednesday evening UTC. He cooked pasta in a pan, then finished it with cream, oregano, a little paprika and garlic, squeezing the sauce in like ketchup for kids. He apologised to the Bretons for the butter, joked that the Italians would be turning in their graves, and ate half of it straight away and saved the rest for later. The cheese cubes that finished the meal, he said, were not a croissant but were very good. The video overlay shows him in the saloon of Bernard with a blue bowl in his lap, with 7.1 knots on the log.
On Miss Beagle, Ertan Beskardes had the wetter day on Thursday UTC. Around 38 degrees south, heading east with a reefed main and the staysail at close to seven knots, he took a big splash in the cockpit that soaked his notebook, and greeted it with a cheerful Opa. His two heavy books on ocean currents are also soggy from the spray, so he has spread them out on the cabin floor to dry. He plans to stay near 40 degrees south because he wants the current to help, and to keep well clear of 42 degrees south, where he has heard of a bad one. He also tried calling on VHF and got no reply, and reckoned there was nobody nearby, though silence on the radio cannot prove that. He ended the day on hot chocolate, with tea and biscuits planned for later, and held up a keyring of Golden Globe Race green cards and asked a contact ashore to photograph it.
The race office's Facebook update added one more, that Beskardes backed off the pace in the stronger wind and confused seas and gave his live talk from his bunk, with the camera pointed outside.
Where is Guy deBoer?
Guy deBoer on Spirit has withdrawn from the Golden Globe Race and is heading for port, probably Cape Town, according to the race office. He remains under the race's safety umbrella until he passes the longitude of Cape Town, when he will drop off the tracker.
What to watch next in the Golden Globe Race
The race office has put out a weather alert for the front of the fleet. A building breeze is due from about 08:00 UTC on Friday 6 November, around 28 to 30 knots and gusting to 35 or 40 knots with a swing from south-west to west, and seas of 6 to 7 metres that will outlast the wind.
Our own read of PredictWind's models, for the weekend, is that the pattern stays split. The map below shows the pack sitting in the light centre of the high, with a band of 25 to 35 knots lying to the south-east between them and Guillou. From Sunday into Monday both PredictWind's own model and GFS show a stronger system south-east of the pack, though GFS makes it tighter and more intense, so how strong it gets is genuinely uncertain.
Three things will tell the story from here:
Whether the approaching weather helps Guillou protect his lead or gives Beskardes another chance to close the gap
Whether Kveseth takes fourth back from Wootton, a mile apart on the tracker
How far the light-wind four fall behind the front group while the high hangs over them
Follow the whole race on our dedicated Golden Globe Race 2026 page.
