At 2.44 p.m(CET) Saturday, Jean-Luc Van den Heede rounded the Cape of Good Hope after 92 days , 2 hours and 22 minutes at sea.

With a 25 day 21 hour and 45 minute lead over Philippe Monnet Jean Luc left the Indian Ocean behind him. In other words, the yachtsman from Amiens is happy, as he had expected at best to have a lead of 15 days. “I grabbed another five hours this morning. The weather is exceptional, the sea is blue with some white horses. The southern Atlantic is rough with a 40-knot wind behind me, so Adrien is reaching a peak speed of 20 knots, which is great. I had to lower the spinnaker, so for the moment, I’m sailing with the genoa and three reefs”.

This is the first time VDH has sailed around Good Hope in this direction, while he has passed four times in the opposite direction. “It has the name it deserves, when it’s on the starboard side, as it marks the end of the fifties and the forties, and I’m now back in a sector I know well, so the hardest part is over. My next gateway is the Equator before the home stretch”.