At the front of the Vendée Globe fleet, Jean Le Cam (Bonduelle) is basking in a favourable wind system, which will enable him to stick to his present course with some good speeds. Behind, Vincent Riou (PRB) and Mike Golding (Ecover) are finding themselves in easing winds, forced to luff up and head south to hold onto slightly less pressure than the leader. This will allow the duo to keep their speed on a shorter course in the long term.

In the short term the leader will stretch away, PRB already losing 4 miles in the past 24 hours, Ecover 42 miles. Behind them VMI may make very minor gains while a new depression system is likely to kick in ahead of the Wavre/Dick duo in around 36 hours. Between now and then they will stay in 20 knot winds with nasty 8/10m waves.

Nick Moloney (Skandia) is stuck in a no man’s land of calm with the only option to head a little south where there is more pressure. Around 500 miles behind him, Joé Seeten (Arcelor Dunkerque) will have to make a more dramatic drop south though the situation is a little more complicated.

The further south, the more upwind there is and the more the wind backs. Far to the north after a strange hook up to 19 degrees last night, Bruce Schwab’s (Ocean Planet) position is looking decidedly dodgy and he may well be forced to go due south losing some more miles to Conrad Humphreys (Hellomoto).

Just over 200 miles behind Schwab, Conrad is set to make further great gains today in a good airflow. At the rear of the fleet, a ridge of high pressure is making conditions difficult for advancing the boats to the south of Australia with a fair amount of north-easterly wind. With regards our two diversions, Patrice Carpentier (VM Matériaux) is yet to leave his pitstop off southern Tasmania and Marc Thiercelin (Pro Form) is making his way up the east coast of the southern island of New Zealand on route towards Christchurch.