News

Another 1200nm made good by crews on day 50, an average of 40nm per crew.

Charlie Pitcher, due to make land on Thursday looks to have lost his sprint race with Da Capo. After taking an initial lead while there was little wind to help the yacht along, he fell behind overnight as the wind gradually picked up helping Da Capo along.

In the fleet, the majority of crews continue to struggling with the lack of wind across the Atlantic Ocean, giving the appearance of a watery desert. Alex MacDonald and Luke Grose on Yorkshire Challenger have come to terms with the fact that they are literally rowing the entire way – presently whenever they stop rowing they boat speed drops to zero where they is simply no wind to help them along.

Both crews of Mick Birchall and Lia Ditton on Dream Maker and the Atlantic Water Babes have described the beauty of the sun rises and the sun sets over the last few days.

Elsewhere some routine maintenance on Red Arrow saw Tom stand guard with his oar ready to put fear into any would be predator, while Richard went overboard to clean the underside of the hull. A fin then appears, striking fear into guardsman Tom, but after some confusion as to the nature of these creatures lurking in the water, it transpired that Richard was in fact amongst a pod of dolphins. Similarly, the crew of QBE Insurance Challenger, James Croombe and Oli Back were also swimming amongst a pod of dolphins. Such a remarkable experience led them to suggest that being able to swim amongst dolphins meant more than winning the race.

The weather continues to be a burden on crews. The outlook for the next 7 days should see Easterly winds of up to 15 knots towards the South of the fleet until Thursday, by which point wind speed will again fall and by the weekend and depending on latitude crews may have a light head wind or a light tail wind. The crews furthest South should experience slightly better conditions.