Conrad, our only Kiwi skipper in the Vendée Globe is making steady progress.
He is maintaining a good 19-20 knots -- a speed which is impressive compared to the group he is sailing alongside.
Having passed the Cape of Good Hope and turning towards Australia, he is now navigating between the Antarctic exclusion zone imposed by the race, and headed East as fast as his boat will take him.
He is chasing Arnaud Boissiéres only about 50 miles ahead, all going well he will pass shortly, Arnaud has taken some sail damage and his speed is impacted. With the current speed difference, Conrad will pass in about 18 hours. Then we set sights on the next boat who is only about 25nm further than that!
Boat repairs, as we all know: in life as in racing, continue aboard with repairs related to the power charger controller incident a bit over a week ago. Conrad runs two B&G autopilot setups, an active and a stand-by: after the electrical problem took out the primary system, Conrad is running on the backup and working to fix the main system; it is a credit to him and B&G that he has already repaired the backup (initially all electronics onboard were impacted by the issue), and he is working with the land-based support team from Navico to make repairs.
