Cape Finisterre on the north west tip of Spain looks set to lure the leaders of the Vendée Globe into a very light and unsettled wind zone. Routings last night certainly seem to bring the top daggerboard boats inside the TSS Traffic Separation Zone zone on this notorious corner. But a lot will depend on how and when the new SW’ly breeze arrives which will allow them to tack west and start to set up for the front which will come through tomorrow night.

It is looking like an extremely complicated weather pattern not least because there are several secondary low pressure systems which need careful watching. All the way to Friday there is not just this tough front with gusts to 40 knots and five metre seas, but after the fast downwind sailing for the foilers more to the west there is then another high pressure ridge to slow them before trying to pick the right spot and timing to get over the top and the west of the next low.

In short it looks like a tiring, stressful few days which will require prudence and excellent self management as well as protecting the boat. Strategies will be much less extreme than on an autumn Transat where the reward for breaking into the Trade Winds first can be a race winner.

There is certainly a sense that skippers, especially of the newer foilers,  will dial down their routing to avoid the worst of the seas as much as possible in order to live on at close to 100% to fight harder further down the course.

Indeed there are no trade winds right now, just a series of messy lows and head scratching transition zones on what has been a pretty atypical Vendée Globe opening.