The Roxy skipper felt she was through the worst of her light weather sailing which has prevailed for six painful stop-start days, and this evening she had slowed from her 10 knots of earlier in the day to 8.6 knots. Brian is now 241 miles behind Sam.

Dee Caffari is staying neatly in step with Thompson as well, making a very healthy 15.4 knots on the Owen-Clarke designed Aviva. Michel Desjoyeaux is second quickest, keeping the power on as the trade winds drop for him. He is 511 miles ahead of Roland Jourdain