Having had a bit of a blast yesterday notching up 535 nautical miles in 24 hours, Ellen MacArthur and Team Kingfisher2 are now suffering from light airs off the African coast. At a position of 24 02′ N 25 55′ W they are creeping along at an average boat speed of 5.4 knots and are now 9 hours 25 minutes behind Orange’s record breaking time at this stage in the challenge.

Ellen commented from the boat this morning: “when you are only sailing at 10 knots, you know you are losing 7 miles an hour, that’s 70 miles in 10 hours. It’s very hard to deal with. Although it’s a record attempt, I think losing miles like this is even harder than when there is a real boat next to you.”

Once through the calm, hopefully by tonight, the Trade Winds should kick in to assist their route south towards the Equator.