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The fleet continue to suffer with adverse weather, having lost nearly 100nm between them through day 24. With most of the fleet on para anchor crews become passengers in the ocean, and as a result over 2/3 of crews have lost ground to the finish.

In conditions such as these where waves come from all angles, the boat moves and lists in a very unpredictable and unstable manner. This means that although competitors have learnt and accepted how to move around and get into or out of the cabins through the first few weeks of the race, mother nature then decides to throw a curve ball and disrupt these well learnt processes. All of a sudden, getting into and out of a cabin becomes even more troublesome.

Competitors will also be faced with terrible living conditions, far worse than the previous 3 weeks. The risks of having a cabin hatch ajar have been well documented. Water in the cabin is one of the worst issues –taking away any possibility of comfort and can obviously effect the electronic equipment onboard. But in leaving the hatch closed, cabin temperature will rapidly rise and create a very humid environment. Furthermore, being in even closer confinement, crew members will undoubtedly irritate and anger each other – competitors will need to learn to control and manage their psychological state even more so to enable them to continue progress when the weather turns.

When in these conditions the morale of a crew can really plummet – especially as crews are unable to determine how other crews in the fleet are performing. It is really important to try and put the race to one side and focus on the challenge that they set out to complete. Crews can only control the controlables and make best use of all other skills and attributes in order to succeed.