"More of the same sailing with big black clouds mixing it up for us. A wet and hot ride makes it difficult to dress for these conditions. Wet on deck and hot below. Lots of tweaks will keep the progress south going."

Dee Caffari (Aviva)

 

Jonny Malbon (Artemis), Raphaël Dinelli (Fondation Ocean Vital) and Rich Wilson (Great American III) all crossed the Equator during the night;  Here's a short message from Rich written yesterday shortly before he reached the imaginary line.

"We thought that we'd escaped the doldrums yesterday, but that was not the case. 13 sail changes in 15 hours last night and this morning (Monday). It was beyond fatiguing trying to keep up with the squalls and light air spots, to keep the boat moving in the right direction. It was also very painful for my back and rib, but I can't stop for that. That huge black cloud up there? Will we intersect it? If yes, we better take a reef right now... if not, well then we'll risk being wrong and have to take the reef during the tumult. It's so hard to know for sure whether my sail choices are going to be the right choices. Sometimes I put a reef in, and then the squall cloud goes by without any wind at all; other times I may not put in a reef and then the wind that comes is more than we can handle. Very difficult to get it right all the time.
The good news is that I did get a snooze or two. The computer started acting up yesterday. I should have known it would happen, because it's too hot here in the cabin for it, particularly when charging the batteries with the engine. So I turned off the computer, network, monitor and inverter, to cool them down. Then I didn't fire them up again until late last night, and then only for an hour or so. It will be a little less convenient to have to turn on the computer every time I want to use it, but that choice will hopefully save the computer--and save some amperes and power on the boat, too."

«In these sea conditions and at this heel, moving around the boat is more like rock climbing than sailing. You need to get a good hold with one hand before taking the other one away,as you move around the inside and the cockpit. You had better have a pilot's licence but the runway may not be clear if you need to do an emergency landing. You are likely to have a big mess, if you don't hold on to things. I won't go into details... I heard them say in the that it was going to continue like this for several days. These sailors must be crazy. Looking at it like that, that's true.»

Michel Desjoyeaux (Foncia)

"I'm sailing at 17-18 knots with the wind on the beam under solent and full mainsail. She's slamming into the waves, but everything is OK on board PRB. The weather models do not concur with the strength and direction of the wind we are getting. I'm not dissatisfied to have work to do. When sailing upwind, there's not a lot you can do. I was starting to get a bit depressed about it (laughs)!" Vincent Riou (PRB)

Mike Golding said today that he is pleased with progress and speed on Ecover 3, but only one position matters: 

"I'm well positioned in relation to my direct competitors and its nice passing boats, but the only boat I ever look at is the lead boat because everyone else is just in the way to the lead boat, that's the goal."

"The reality is that anyone of this lead group is in a very strong position now to potentially win the race." 

"The boat is up there in speed and performance, we've been quick all the way down the track even on the downhill sections we've never really lost any noticeable ground on the leader other than regular compressions and extensions so I think the boats got the potential to do very well we've just got to hope pray that it all stays together and we can complete the course."

On what to expect for the week ahead. "The high pressure system is situated a very long way to the South West and that means we're having to sail through the more headed winds before we get to it and go round it.  The weather forecast is fairly stable at least in context of the fact that we are going to be sailing on this or near this heading for several days. The conditions are quite unusual, by now on a regular round the world trip you'd be expecting to be reaching and eventually putting up a spinnaker.  It's not your regular champagne sailing conditions at all,"

Marc Gullemot (Safran) has moved up two places in the rankings since yesterday.  After overtaking Dominique Wavre (Temenos), he also got ahead of Brian Thompson (Pindar) today. 

«I'm pleased to have caught the President of the Imoca class (Dominique Wavre),  but especially Brian Thompson. Our boats come from very different design choices and are diametrically opposed.  We were sailing in the same conditions in the same area with Safran giving 100%, which proves we were not wrong in our basic design options. We're going to continue to sail close reaching, heeled over. Gradually I'll be coming around more towards the east.  Going around the St. Helena high is out of the question, as it could block our path right across to the coast of Brazil.»