Orange’s current position is just 11 miles west from Valencia Island, off of Irish west coast.

They have effectively been swallowed by the weather system they were hoping to get around the outside of, and now can do little other than wait for the system to pass, leaving what they expect to be strong southerly winds which will give them a fast and difficult ride north. The fact that the swell is coming in from the south means it is not too far away. They gained some miles before in the fast conditions, and as long as this calm patch does not last too long, they are in reasonable shape still against the record time.

Lisa MacDonald commented from the boat earlier this morning: “After high speeds this morning, the last few hours have been pretty testing. Having done almost no sail changes until then, we have pretty well seen every sail onboard in the past couple of hours. We now unfortunately have almost no wind, 3-5 knots from the north, and most our boat speed is coming from the waves from behind that we are surging down. So we are waiting for the southerly wind to come back in.

“This is my first time around the west coast of Ireland, but it seems that these are typical conditions! Mist, haze, fog, no land in sight even though Valencia Island is not far away. Our next corner is the North West of Ireland, and then on to St Kilda.”

Bruno Peyron added: “It’s hard to be in the car park – a bit brutal for us. We have to find a way out, we have to find the exit to the north or north-west. Its very typical Irish weather, and everyone onboard is fighting to get out of it. Conditions could be very different tomorrow, maybe 40 knots from the south.”