After being separated by more than 250 miles north-south, as the leading pack starts to converge towards the ‘virtual gate’ which marshals the fleet north away from the worst of the ice, the 17 miles gain since early morning for Jean-Pierre Dick (Paprec-Virbac 2) as he slants north-west has taken him from fifth to third. Once joined by an invisible string, Josse has now broken 30 miles south of Elies and is 62 miles north of the line taken by Paprec Virbac 2.

After Josse crossed the longitude of the Cape of Good Hope, the first of the three Great Capes at 0740hrs GMT this morning, eight more had passed by 1300 GMT: Eliès, Peyron, Dick, Jourdain, Le Cam, Le Cléac’h, Desjoyeaux, Golding, Riou.

Josse’s (provisional) time down the Atlantic to the Cape ‘line’, 26 days 19hrs 38 minutes is still some way slower than Vincent Riou’s 2004 time of 24 days 07hrs 20 minutes which was an average of 11.7 knots for a theoretical distance of 6900 miles.

While Eliès, on his first solo Open 60 mission into the grey, featureless world of the Indian Ocean told today’s live radio session that he was celebrating with a veal stew, some 1620 miles behind Norbert Sedlacek, the only Austrian in the race, was finding the changeable conditions on Nauticsport-Kapsch ‘stressy’ but they had not stopped him celebrating St Nicholas Day.

He told the radio reports today that he would be celebrating the pre-Christmas festival today with Austrian chocolate, but he, as well, will celebrate passing the milestone into the Indian Ocean as he had to retire from the 2004 into Cape Town with problems with his keel mechanism. 

Indeed it was four days from  now  in the last race that he announced his retirement.

Jean Pierre-Dick and Mike Golding, GBR (Ecover 3) will learn how much it has benefited them to go south. Dick had taken Paprec-Virbac to 47 degrees south, just 40 miles away from ice which has been tracked by satellite radar, but the skipper explained how bitingly cold it is on deck ‘very hard to make your fingers do anything.’

While Golding has risen to eighth, compatriot Jonny Malbon on Artemis II again highlighted the problems he has been having with his watermaker system. He told the radio vacs today that he is down to just fsix litres of water and has stripped the offending mechanism back completely to re-assemble it having replaced all the filters. A solo ocean racing ‘rite of passage’ it may often prove to be, but Malbon has a difficult task on his hands admitting; “besides everything else I am desperate now for a cup of tea.”

Sam Davies, GBR, (Roxy) had the pleasant surprise of being joined on the radio vacs by her parents who are presently living on their boat in La Rochelle, France and were visiting the Salon Nautique, the Paris Boat Show.

“As long as Sam is happy and enjoying herself then we are happy too, and she certainly sounds like she is enjoying herself. She has always wanted to go fast on boats and now she is having a great time.” Said Sam’s mum Jenny.

Jonny Malbon, GBR, Artemis 2: “I am up and down, I have jus spent the morning dismantling the watermaker and I am down to about six litres of water, and I cannot get any water either and so my focus is not really on boat speed at the moment which is really, really annoying but hopefully I will get that fixed and get up to speed this afternoon, I have stripped it completely and changed all the seals, so hopefully that should do it. I hope it does because I am starting to get quite thirsty.”