Intro:

The Vendee Globe continued on Wednesday - with the fleet deep into the treacherous southern ocean and passing to the south of Australia.

Script:

Banque Populaire retook the lead from Macif in the Vendee Globe on Tuesday as the boats crossed the East Australia gate.

As a low pressure system bore down Armel Le Cl?ac'h aboard Banque Populaire was able to benefit from an average of 20.4 knots to close the deficit on leader Francois Gabart of Macif.

That gap has shrunk from nine miles to the north east to just 3.9 miles.

For fourth-placed Alex Thomson (Hugo Boss) and Bernard Stamm (Chemin?es Poujoulat), who is just 17 miles behind in the ranking and 15 miles northwest of Thomson.

Javier Sanso (Acciona 100% EcoPowered) continued his charge, averaging 420.6 miles at 17.5 knots over the last 24 hours, the best in the fleet. He is just 53 miles behind Dominique Wavre (Mirabaud).

Mike Golding (Gamesa) in seventh place, has been cursing his luck after hitting a ridge of high pressure, but is through it now and has made 50 miles back on Jean Le Cam (SynerCiel) in the last 24 hours at the 1500hrs (UTC) ranking.