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6:23 AM Fri 28 Nov 2008 GMT
After the rapid speeds of the previous days, a general easing off the accelerator is taking place across the fleet, with the leading group struggling to top averages of 10 knots.
The most marked slow down is still that of long-time leader Lo?ck Peyron, whose 24-hour distance is remarkably now the second shortest of the fleet - only Norbert Sedlacek, back in 23rd place, covered fewer miles. As Peyron parks, so Seb Josse has moved into pole position, holding a 15 mile lead for the past two position updates (1500hrs and 1900hrs GMT) on BT.
There's little to split the leaders in this evening's position update, with 42 miles covering the first four boats. Mike Golding (Ecover, GBR) is showing as 20 miles behind by taking the more westerly route.
Those still in the fast lane include Marc Guillemot (Safran) in 10th, who looks set to become the first of the chasing pack to join the leaders. Dee Caffari (Aviva, GBR) in 15th, has maintained the highest 24-hour mileage of the fleet, with Arnaud Boissieres (Akena V?randas) posting similar speeds at a similar latitude to the west. Similarly Jonny Malbon (Artemis, GBR) and Unai Basurko (Pakea Bizkaia, ESP) have both picked up the pace in their own private battle.
However, there are speed bumps ready to catch the unwary as unpredictable squalls continue across the course. Sylvain Mondon of Meteo France predicts variations from 6 to 22 knots and shifts in direction from south-easterly to north-easterly in direction with the thundery storms, possibly accompanied of course by wind holes - as Peyron proved earlier today. Tomorrow the leaders will briefly enjoy a more stable easterly wind of around 10 knots, but this will only be temporary, as the front group begin to feel the effect of the St. Helena high, which will gradually reduce the wind strength on Friday. Traffic jams look likely.
Next to cross the Equator will be Derek Hatfield, on Spirit of Canada, who will cross the hemisphere later this evening.
News from the Boats
Derek Hatfield (Algimouss-Spirit of Canada) in his daily message.
59 miles to do to cross the equator! This is my 5th time crossing that magical line and it is always special having the GPS just flip over from North to South, no fanfare or special signs, it doesn't care so much. For me this kind of marks the end of phase one in the race - start line to the equator. Phase two starts immediately and takes us down to the south.
It's a little slow today it seems, more upwind work as I get into the weather systems south of the equator. The doldrums were non existent this time across which is lucky. Normally it is a slow painful crossing with many black clouds to negotiate, thunder and lightning storms and big wind holes that can last hours. Most of the fleet crossed without stopping I would imagine. I'm very tired today as I had a long night on deck watching for ships and monitoring the autopilot. Three ships came directly from the south, head on and very close. It's a little intimidating to have a large ship playing chicken with a small sailboat. About midnight the autopilot decided to tack the boat while I was asleep and I was rudely awakened with the boat totally on its side going sideways on the opposite tack. It took me about an hour to get it all back on track again and luckily no damage. I guess the pilot needs some attention so I think I will call him Joshua, after that famous Canadian Joshua Slocum who was the first singlehander to go around the world.'
Jonny Malbon (Artemis)is tonight in 18th place 820 miles from the leader. Here is his daily message received this evening.
'All good onboard - squall school again this morning for a few hours they are just everywhere. Lets hope tonight is a little more relaxing, but I doubt it. Boat feels great and its good t make some miles back. Learning a lot about how to reach with her - getting some good speeds, and certainly helped us get past Unai last night. Sights set on Steve now.'
Top Five as per tracker 18:17:43:43 with distance to leader
Loick Peyron (Gitana Eighty)
Sebastien Josse (BT) - 1.2 nm to leader
Armel Le Cleac'h (Brit Air) - 1.8nm to leader
Jean Le Cam (VM Materiaux) - 9.9 nm to leader
Roland Jourdain (Veolia Environnement) - 15.2 nm to leader
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Cape Leeuwin, WA
Foiling - Components (Wings,Masts,etc)
