© Photo Marek Slodownik
© Photo Marek Slodownik
After midnight the wind picked up a little and in the early morning hours 43-year-old French skipper J.P. Mouligne crossed the finish line. Cray Valley came out of the darkness illuminated by spreader lights at 05:00:17 GMT. Her mainsail was torn and full of holes. J. P. Mouligne was very happy to have finally completed Leg 4 after 32 days, 14 hours, and 17 seconds at sea.
Cray Valley © Photo Billy Black
He finished in second place on this final leg, but Mouligne took the first place overall in Class II, having won every leg but this last frustrating one. His total time for the race was 132 days, 4 hours, 3 minutes and 9 seconds, missing his chance to break David Adams record time in the last race by almost one day within three minutes. By closing his circumnavigation circle, he finally accomplished his dream.
Even though it was after 2 a.m. local time Mouligne was welcomed at the arrival dock with cheers and fireworks. With his wife Kate at his side he said: "I had hoped to be here three days ago and then I hoped to be here six hours ago." It was a very prolonged finish for him.
Cray Valley
Despite a lot of problems like his torn mainsail, lost gennager, spinnaker and infected knee, by his own words he had enjoyed every moment of the leg. He was making no excuses for finishing second for the leg behind Mike Garside and he gave him credit for a better job tactically on this leg. "He deserved to win this leg." he said.
When he started out from Punta del Este, Mouligne was on his way to win all four individual legs of the race and sign his name into the race record books. But this was not to be. Mouligne also realized that he may have lost the leg battle, but he won the war in the race. "My goal was to win Class II and that's what I've done. Nobody can take that away from me now." he said. The next boat with Victor Yazykov was still over 450 miles behind him and the last boat 1, 475 miles back.
© Photo Billy Black
| Place | Skipper | Boat | Latitude | Longitude | Dist. to go | Speed | Dist. to first | Time |
| 1 | Soldini | Fila | Charleston | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | Thiercelin | Somewhere | Charleston | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Place | Skipper | Boat | Latitude | Longitude | Dist. to go | Speed | Dist. to first | Time |
| 1 | Garside | Magellan Alpha | Charleston | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | Mouligne | Cray Valley | Charleston | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 | Yazykov | Wind of Change | 27 20N | 073 20W | 465 | 5.2 | 464.5 | 2144 |
| 4 | Van Liew | Balance Bar | 19 12N | 061 35W | 1269 | 8 | 1269.2 | 2144 |
| 5 | Petersen | No Barriers | 18 48N | 061 44W | 1280 | 6.9 | 1280.3 | 2144 |
| 6 | Saito | Shuten-dohji II | 19 16N | 060 43W | 1302 | 5.8 | 1302.4 | 2144 |
| 7 | Hunter | Paladin II | 18 13N | 057 40W | 1475 | 5.5 | 1475.1 | 2144 |
Copyright © Richard Konkolski
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