Sam Davies writes gingerly, with very sore hands after spending hours at the helm of Team Cowes, about encounters of a very bizarre kind – nearly hitting a fridge at 17 kts. Commenting this morning, Davies said: “It is amazing what you see floating around out here – sad really. I wonder who would come off worse? I guess the fridge is already in a bit of a predicament, floating in the middle of the ocean. I think it would cause a fair amount of damage. The risk of hitting something is one that we don’t like to think too much about because it would probably put an end to our race, but at night it is hard to see things in time. Luckily, it is full moon at the moment, so we have a bit of visibility at night.

“We are certainly in flying fish territory now – I managed to rescue five in total, but I know there were a few I missed. The slippery things don’t realise that you are trying to help them and make it very awkward for their rescuer to try and get hold of them. Then, once you have accomplished the mission there is no thank you or anything – you just get left with a pleasant reminder of the slimy fellow – very stinky hands. I now have a zip-lock bag on stand by to act as a glove for handling the flying fish. One that didn’t get rescued is now a bit of a worry for me – I heard it land on (or, even worse, in) the spinnaker bag behind me (containing last night’s ‘bordelle’ of a spinnaker) – couldn’t leave the helm as we were in a bit of a gust and I heard it flapping around. Must search for it this morning – nice.”

Nick Moloney and Sam Davies are currently lying in sixth place in the Open 60 fleet, 342 miles behind the leader, Virbac see previous news story here