Derek Hatfield (Algimouss Spirit of Canada) currently in 25th place, 1450 miles from the leader sent this message this morning.

"The wind has come back this morning but not until after a slow frustrating afternoon yesterday. A big black localized cloud formed in front of me and I spent 6 long hours trying to get around, through, and under it with wind shifts and velocity changes by the minute. The weather here is very unsettled and I hope it clears up soon. The electrical situation is still the same and I am slowly coming to grips with the fact that we may not be able to do anything about it and that I will have to  be very conservative all the way around. "

 

Jean-Pierre Dick (Paprec-Virbac 2) is in third place, 36 miles from the leader:

"I got a good rest, as the conditions are stable. The quietest trade wind in the world.  15 knots of wind and I'm advancing at 11-12 knots. I crossed the Equator at midnight precisely. Didn't see Neptune, as I was completely asleep. I went into the southern hemisphere without noticing it.  On board, we're bumping around and getting wet. I'm using the sliders to protect the cockpit. Even if the water is warm, there's no point in getting unnecessarily wet. A great innovation from the Paprec-Virbac design team. " 

 

"Just a few words to say I've seen some flying fish.  There are a lot of them, still looking just as clumsy as they take off, but are majestic as they fly.  I was worried they had disappeared. I'm just passing the final Cape Verde islands.  I had to tack away from the wind shadow of the first one, Sao Nicolau. I didn't think it was high enough to produce that effect, but as the wind was easterly, there was a calm zone that I wanted to avoid. Now I'm being slowed down a bit by the islands of Santiago and Fogo, the highest in the group. Around fifty miles from the first one, so I may slow down, but shouldn't stop. It's great seeing land and will probably be the last time I see any for some time."
Bernard Stamm (Cheminées Poujoulat)

 

"Yesterday evening, there was a beautiful cloud.  After the cloud went over, the wind disappeared and the sails flapped.  I caught sight of Foncia ahead of me in the distance.  Then, she got away leaving me standing for two hours doing 1 knot.  Think the Doldrums are behind me now.  Looking forward to the southern hemisphere.  Now, I'm going to be leaning over sailing upwind."

Arnaud Boissières (Akena Vérandas)

 

At dawn, Jérémie Beyou and Jean Le Cam joined their friends on the other side of the Equator. The next to cross will be Dominique Wavre and Brian Thompson, currently less than fifty miles from the line. They are currently passing a dozen small volcanic islands called St. Peter and St. Paul's Rocks, which are 1000 km off Natal (Brazil).

 

Sam Davies (Roxy) has made it through the Doldrums and is now in 13th place, 217 miles from the leader.

"Well, the Doldrums was very kind to us this year! Our little group of boats (Temenos, Pindar, Roxy and Safran) managed to slip through without really slowing down. Now we are careening along upwind in the SE trade winds, just North of the equator. The reason that we had no "doldrums" was because I wanted a light patch of wind to re-do a lashing at the top of my mainsail, which meant dropping the sail, working at radar-height  in my climbing harness, and then re-hoisting. So, I had to do it in 16 knots of wind, which was a little challenging, but totally do-able. The good thing was that the re-hoist was less hard as I went to one reef! With just the solent up, we actually didn't slow down too much either.
So, now it is an upwind ride for a while, where I struggle to keep up with these new powerful boats, so I will be trying as hard as I can to keep Roxy at 110% all the time! Tomorrow I will cross the equator, so I shall make my offering to Neptune (he gets champagne and chocolate) to thank him for looking after us so far and to negotiate good winds for the rest of the trip!"