Ocean Planet is the only yacht in Class 1 yet to clear the Doldrums in the second leg of the Around Alone Race as the fleet heads for Cape Town.

Bernard Stamm in Bobst Group-Armor Lux still leads Group 1 with Emma Richards in Pindar holding on to second. Reporting from the boat as she crossed the Equator at 1.18pm Richards said: “I was down below ready to log where I crossed into the Southern Hemisphere when a squall came in, by the time I had eased the sheets, adjusted course etc we had crossed but when I was on deck I didn’t see the big yellow line painted so it must have washed away at that part. Anyway, had a sip of fine rum and gave Neptune the rest, hope he liked it, it burned my throat!”

In an effort avoid the worst of the Doldrums, Graham Dalton on Hexagon headed well out to the west, but it is still to early to predict how profitable his course has been.

Meanwhile, in Group 2 Tommy Hilfiger Freedom America is still 230 miles ahead of the pack but the one to keep an eye on is Kojiro Shiraishi’s Spirit of yukoh, the 40ft yacht which is really holding her own against the 50s. She’s currently lying in second place overall in her class ahead of Derek Hatfield on Spirit of Canada. She’s held a firm grip on second place for over a day now and it’s obvious from an e-mail sent from Kojiro that all is well on board: “Spirit of yukoh is a 40-foot boat with a kitchen. It is equipped with various seasonings and a ready and waiting recipe book with the tools and food to cook flying fish! It has to be the biggest kitchen in the whole history of the Around Alone (not that I’m bragging or anything!). It’s three times the size of my chart table.”

Current positions

Class 1

Boat, Lat Lon, AvgBsp, AvgHeading, Dist To Finish (nm), Distance From Leader (nm)

1 Bobst Group-Armor Lux, 3 29.840 S, 24 43.280 W, 3782.4nm, N/A

2 Pindar, 0 11.280 S, 23 35.820 W, 3986.8nm, 204.4nm

3 Solidaires, 0 16.903 N, 22 40.118 W, 4021.9nm, 239.5nm

4 Hexagon, 2 24.640 N, 28 09.000 W, 4132.5, 350.1nm, 161.3nm

5 Ocean Planet, 24 36.514 N, 17 14.172 W, 5591, 1808.6nm, 218.4nm

6 Tiscali, 43 27.320 N, 8 21.000 W, 6799.8, 3017.4, 0nm

Class 2

Boat, Lat, Lon, AvgBsp, AvgHeading, DTF (nm), DFL (nm)

1 Tommy Hilfiger Freedom America, 22 35.080 N, 17 52.480 W, 5466nm

2 Spirit of yukoh 26 50.600 N, 17 59.480 W, 5698.6nm, 232.6nm

3 Spirit of Canada, 26 27.760 N, 16 24.240 W, 5710.9nm, 244.9nm

4 Everest Horizontal, 26 33.160 N, 16 02.920 W, 5723.9nm, 257.8nm

5 BTC Velocity, 26 45.786 N, 16 07.249 W, 5733.7nm, 267.6nm

6 Bayer Ascensia, 28 12.000 N, 15 57.560 W, 5815.6nm, 349.6nm