Sam Davies is currently in fifth place in the Trophée BPE – the first race of the Figaro circuit – which started on Sunday.

The fleet spent their first night creeping along at around 3kts boatspeed. In a phone call yesterday morning, Davies reported: “There’s no wind…at the moment – between 0-2 knots which is pretty unusual for a start of a Transatlantic race but it’s better than going off the start in to massive waves with everything flying around.”

The first safety call was made by the race committee to the whole fleet this yesterday, when it was confirmed that all the boats were safe and well, the only problem Skandia and the rest of the fleet have is the lack of wind, which completely dropped overnight as it rotated from south-west to north-west. “In the middle of the night I just got stuck in completely nothing – I was with Cercle Vert and then he just sailed off. There was nothing I could do,” added Davies.

After 80 miles and with a 15.7 miles spread from 1st-12th, the majority of the fleet are in sight of each other. It might be too early to say who is quickest but the favourites are certainly ‘up there’. Davies continued: “At the moment, I’m in between Aqarelle.com and Total and I can see Cercle Vert, Banque Populaire just in front – everyone is really close.”

Current positions (0900)

1 BANQUE POPULAIRE Jeanne Gregoire 46 48.42′ N 7 06.90′ W

2 CERCLE VERT Gildas Morvan 46 46.98′ N 7 05.22′ W 0.8 miles to leader

3 CREDIT MARITIME-ZEROTWO Eric Drouglazet 47 02.70′ N 7 08.28′ W 2.7 miles to leader

4 BOSTIK Charles Caudrelier 47 03.48′ N 7 04.14′ W 5.6 miles to leader

5 SKANDIA Samantha Davies 46 57.24′ N 6 54.60′ W 10.3 miles to leader

6 TOTAL Marc Emig 46 35.64′ N 6 42.30′ W 13.3 miles to leader

7 AQUARELLE.COM Yannick Bestaven 46 52.38′ N 6 47.58′ W 13.8 miles to leader

8 ENTREPRENDRE AU PAYS DE LORIENT Yannig Livory 46 30.72′ N 6 30.36′ W 20.2 miles to leader

9 LITTLE BLACK SHARK Antonio Pedro Da Cruz 46 23.70′ N 6 23.22′ W 23.5 miles to leader

10 COUTOT ROEHRIG David Raison 46 29.10′ N 6 23.22′ W 24.7 miles to leader

11 GEDIMAT Armel Tripon 47 25.14′ N 6 33.06′ W 31.7 miles to leader

12 ATAO AUDIO SYSTEM Dominic Vittet 47 04.44′ N 6 20.82′ W 34.4 miles to leader