With Michel Desjoyeaux and François Gabart heading under sail to Cape Town after breaking the top off their mast on Foncia, Virbac Paprec 3 have extended their lead and were making over 18 knots this morning with some 345 miles to the longitude of Cape of Good Hope. Jean-Pierre Dick and Loïck Peyron look to still have winds of around 30knots from the SW this morning, successfully holding on to the back of the low pressure system.


Iker Martinez and Xabi Fernandez have sailed the greatest distance of the fleet since last night and this morning MAPFRE is some 75 miles to the west and just to the south of the westernmost extension of the first security gate.
Estrella Damm, Alex Pella and Pepe Ribes, have been the quickest of the fleet – along with the race leaders – overnight and have 250 miles to the sail to satisfy the first gate, separated from fifth placed Groupe Bel by 38 miles.

Renault ZE Sailing Team are still making a more southerly course, 59 miles to catch Groupe Bel, while Dominique Wavre and Michèle Paret on Mirabaud should now have passed the longitude of Gough Island, having had 10 miles to go at 0600hrs UTC, their course taking the Swiss-French partners past 30 miles to the NE of the lonely island.

Neutrogena in eighth was struggling this morning trying to make south in light, variable breezes making just 4.7 knots, Boris Herrmann and Ryan Breymaier look to have had a similar kind of night to Dee Caffari and Anna Corbella on GAES Centros Auditivos who were struggling to get off ‘bicycle’ speeds (two wheels or 0.0 knots!).

A frustrated Caffari, making less than 40 miles overnight reported:
“ Words cannot describe how painful tonight has been. Listening to the mainsail slatting , the headsail blowing against the rig and the hull slamming on the waves. The sky is clear, the stars are shining and a half moon illuminates our lack of progress. The on watch work hard to try and get the boat speed to register above 0 which is difficult when the wind speed does not register above 2 and the off watch cannot sleep for listening to the sorry state of affairs outside.
As a team we are tired and depressed and frustrated but as soon as the new wind arrives
this will be forgotten and we will focus on the job at hand.”
If Caffari sounded tired and a bit fed up, spare a thought also for the Hugo Boss duo Andy Meiklejohn and Wouter Verbraak who averaged just 1.9 knots overnight, making 12.5 miles.

Central Lechera Asturiana’s course towards Cape Town looks set to be marked by very light and variable winds as they tussle with the centre of the high pressure system.