Tracy Edwards’ yacht Maiden II, attempting the Antigua to Newport speed record, is behind schedule and won’t arrive at her destination until this evening

The team is currently on the beat either on deck or asleep or two wet to go near the computer but Adrienne Cahalan did manage to log a report to keep us on track.

‘Last night the barometer plummeted to look like an Austrian ski slope on the graph, dropping 18mb in under 10 hours. A front came through at about 3am local time just as we were crossing the Gulf Stream. So for a while there we were down to three reefs, no headsail sailing along in 50kts of wind. As always the sea in the Gulf Stream is rough, a lot of lightening but we only had to cross a 45nm stretch at about 71W which was not too painful. The front has now passed and we are now sailing on the wind with reduced speed. Therefore our time for finishing the record has blown out into late afternoon evening. ‘The wind is forecast to stay in the west-north-west for the next hours so that means we may not break the four-day barrier which for us is very disappointing. However, given that we only had a 10-day weather window to take a forecast to do the record we can not be too unrealistic about expecting optimum conditions exactly at the time it so happens we feel like leaving Antigua to sail to Newport!

We’ll be based in Newport RI for six weeks while we undertake some short repairs and attempt to break the 24hr speed record. To do this we will have to optimise some features on the boat such as lightening her up. We will then wait for the right conditions to go out to sea and line her up with a long stretch of water. The record currently stands at 687nm in one day so we have our work cut out – but as they say big crews on big boats attempt big records!

‘On the crew front there are a few aches and pains with two of our key drivers toughing it out with shoulder injuries. On a short sprint like this run of 3-4 days, most injured don’t take downtime but just tough it out.’

Day 4

Position at 0500: 38 20N 71 28W

Distance to finish: 200nm

Miles sailed: 1360nm

Average speed since start: 16.19

Current speed average: 15kts

Current true wind angle: 55 degrees

Current course into Newport: 357T

Weather: 25-35kts from 300T-310T