High pressure over northern France will bring Force 2-3 westerlies to the Solent. This will back into the southwest early in the afternoon and strengthen to Force 4, gusting Force 5 as the system continues its path from Biscay to Germany.

Before the wind begins to back, visibility will be good and this should bring good sea breezes from 1400, vectoring the prevailing breeze into the south.

Tidally, HW Portsmouth is 1535 (4.2m) so the Solent tides will be slack about 1330, eastbound before that and westbound thereafter.

With light winds forecast, the perennial decision of whether to hug the shore and cheat the tide, or to go for breeze and eat the tide will once more need to be made.

Looking ahead, there are lows approaching the Faroes and a shallow low moving very slowly east over the Iberian peninsula but the same chain of systems, the one supposed to catapult Cam Lewis’ Team Adventure across the north Atlantic, should be arriving towards the start of next week.

This will mean light, variable headwinds for the first night, strengthening at the start of next week and bringing stronger westerlies and southwesterlies. Some of the multihulls might be able to get to the Rock before the stronger breezes arrive but if not, this race looks unlikely to produce any records despite the fleet of rocketships assembled for this race.