At 23:18:30 UTC on 31 January, the 41-year-old Dutch yachtsman completed his journey. It has been 214 days, 12 hours, 18 minutes and 43 seconds since he started in Les Sables d'Olonne.
« Bravo Marc, you did what no one has ever done before: you took second place in the Golden Globe Race! » - Slats fans joked on social media.
On 28 January, the night before Jean Luc Van-Den Heede's finish, Slats' shore team manager contacted him directly, for which the yachtsman received a 36-hour penalty. «The 18-hour penalty is for the illegal» call and another 18 hours for the conduct of the manager, who had argued with the GGR organizing committee prior to the call. As the race rules stipulate that the penalty cannot be worked offshore in BiscayneBay, this time will be added to Slats' result at the finish line. The Dutchman was only saved from the penalty of moving to the Chichester class by the race organizing committee's opinion that the yachtsman had not gained an advantage over the other competitors.
Despite the late hour and the arduous journey that had preceded it, Slates looked awake on shore. He said only that he would very much like to eat steak, and again complained of the lack of fresh water - from the last drops of the ten-liter supply he had made with a handheld desalter, the yachtsman had made himself coffee in the morning.
« So drink champagne! » - cheered Slats' Jean-Luc van den Heede, who came to greet his comrade and had an impromptu «press conference with him».
According to Slats, his toughest moment of the race was the day in September when Abhilash Tomy and GregorMcGuckin were affected by a storm in the Indian Ocean. The yachtsman revealed that all the competitors had contacted each other several times that day to check how things were going, so when the Indian and Irishman suddenly didn't make it to the air, he was very worried.
But the happiest day, as it turned out, Slats had to wait for almost the whole race. According to him, the most positive emotions he experienced when three days before the finish, approaching Spanish La Coruña, where he was to hide from the storm, he found out that the weather allows him to go straight to Le Sables d'Olonne after all.
« Was very disappointed three days ago when he went to La Coruña. Thought I was going to have to hide there. And I didn't want to go there»," admitted the yachtsman.
« The rescuers» of the Dutchman were the crew of one of the larger vessels heading for CapeFinisterre. After a half hour conversation with the ship's captain and discussion of the latest weather forecast, it turned out that the yachtsman could turn around to the north and head straight for the finish line.
« The waves are bad, but I don't care! :) Almost there! » - Slats happily wrote on January 30.
The next to finish should be Estonian Uku Randmaa ) and American Istvan Kopar (Istvan Kopar). At last count, Randmaa said Jan. 31, he's 200 nautical miles away from the equator. Kopar is 800 nautical miles behind the Estonian. According to the tracker, they will arrive in Le Sables d'Olonne in the first half of March.
Finn Tapio Lehtinen hopes to finally round Cape Horn and enter the AtlanticOcean next week.
