News

Fleet progress repeats itself for another day, with each crew losing an average of 4nm again. The continued bad weather has now severely hampered fleet record attempts, including that of Charlie Pitcher on JJ – the solo record of 42 days is now almost certainly out of reach.

Sarah Medland celebrated her birthday on board Mission Atlantic yesterday. While this will no doubt have been a tough birthday to endure, being so far south Mission Atlantic are missing the worst of the weather, having only drifted a few nautical miles south while on their para anchor.

The area of low pressure affecting the fleet is now moving East towards the Canary Islands. For the fleet leaders this means they will experience Northerly winds up to 20 knots. However, for the rest of the fleet, conditions will get worse before getting better. West South Westerly winds of up to 30 knots will continue to push crews back, but the forecast is still set to reverse through the next 48 hours. Winds will gradually die down through Monday and then reverse at some point Tuesday afternoon. At this point all crews should finally be able to bring in their para anchors and continue to row onto Antigua.

Meanwhile Britannia III moved to within 800nm of Bridgetown as the winds slowly swings round and will again assist them West before the end of Sunday. After the trials and tribulations of the last few days no doubt they will be grateful to have 20 knot easterly’s behind them for the next week.