At 1230GMT today, Ericsson navigator Steve Hayles reported that they had stopped the boat in the water and crew members Jason Carrington and Richard Mason were in the water cutting away ropes from the keel and rudder.

Thirty hours ago, during the first night, Ericsson had what Hayles described as an issue with a sail and a halyard, and had been sailing since with the debris hanging off the appendages. It was only now that the conditions were judged safe enough to put the swimmers in the water to resolve the problem.

The boat is now underway again in fourth place and skipper, Neal McDonald, chats about the current conditions: “The wind is slowly easing off to around 20 knots but average boats speed still around an amazingly wet 19 knots.

“We have not got into a proper routine yet; our main focus has been on sailing fast and trying to catch the leaders. House work has taken a back seat- consequently down below is of a bit of a mess – a small leak in the deck has made us and some of the electronics soaking wet. We don’t even have a functioning keyboard yet!

“Every manoeuvre seems to take forever and requires unbelievable energy –
right now it all seems worth it as we make small gains on the leaders.
ERT fights on another day.”