Ellen MacArthur and team aboard the giant catamaran Kingfisher2 recorded another 500 plus mile day yesterday bringing their challenge time to just one hour 35 minutes behind Orange, and 53 hours 24 minutes behind Geronimo.

The exciting 35-40 knots allowed Kingfisher to excel down the seemingly endless broad reach but they have now reached an area of lighter winds at a position of 41 55’S 17 33’E and are doing all they can to sniff out the breeze.

Having climbed north yesterday, the crew are making the most of the warmer temperature before they head south once again to face the harsh Southern Ocean. Andrew Preece commented from the boat this morning: “Right now, we are on starboard gybe, we have just set the storm spinnaker and we are heading south east diving for real this time into the cold and lonely latitudes. We dipped into the 40s a few days ago but came up for air. This time I think it’s for real…”

Meanwhile, Ellen MacArthur is contemplating the next move and how to avoid the worst of the calms. “We’re trying to decide what to do with the weather. There is a ridge to the right and we’re sailing into a high pressure area with the low below us but pretty inactive. Sailing as high as we can until we decide when to gybe – all routing saying to stay a bit higher then gybe under ridge to get south. Bit frustrating that we had to sail round top of low yesterday but it was the best thing to do with the forecasted sea state – it was a big detour but the safer thing to do.”