Lots of coffee, chat and plenty of sleep has been the prescription aboard Ecover as Mike Golding and Alex Thomson let the boat carry them towards South Africa. Mike Golding reported this morning?

“We are making steady progress north-west, straight down the line with boat speeds up to 12 knots, averaging sort of 9.5 knots. We are close reaching so it is OK. We have been slamming a lot this morning, a bit of a bumpy motion. Otherwise it is pretty steady going. We are not exactly sail trimming for our lives.

“We are just letting the boat find its way to Cape Town. Alex is fine. His hand was very sore yesterday after putting the main up. Alex was aloft again then and kept banging his hand, so with much more rest today it should be getting better and start healing.

“We have certainly been having a good sleep. It has got milder, just chilly now as opposed to icy cold. The skies have been blue all morning and it has just clouded over now. So we are pretty hopeful we are moving into more clement weather.”