More upwind...

No let up for the Calais Round Britain and Ireland race crews

Above: headwinds as they sail south

1000 positions

Pos	Name	Lat	Long	SOG	COG	DTF	DTL
1	PRB	60 48.24' N	1 23.72' W	7.9	46	640.4	0
2	Sill	60 47.80' N	1 25.08' W	7.9	41	640.4	0.1
3	Bobst Group Armor Lux	60 39.72' N	1 30.52' W	5.8	87	647.7	7.3
4	Ecover	60 55.20' N	1 53.48' W	7.7	45	654.3	13.9
5	VMI	60 37.28' N	2 46.40' W	5.1	72	681.9	41.5
6	Team 888	60 36.48' N	3 45.28' W	7.6	46	710	69.6
7	Arcelor Dunkerque	60 30.44' N	5 07.00' W	5.4	76	750.8	110.5
8	Garnier	59 03.48' N	6 07.76' W	7.4	54	815.3	174.9
9	Objectif 3	58 33.00' N	07 05.00' W	4.8	49	838.7	198.4

With the Open 60 frontrunners closing on Muckle Flugga at the northernmost part of the course the crews will be cursing as the forecast charts indicate that there will be yet more headwinds once they have rounded the Shetlands Islands and begin their trek south down the east coast of the UK towards the Calais finish line.

While the top four boats all remain in contention with the fight particularly close between PRB and Sill - over the course of last night, the leaders put some separation between them and Sebastien Josse's VMI, who has taken a flier to the northwest, followed by Team 888. It should be remembered that VMI, formerly Thomas Coville's Sodebo, is the only boat among the front runners to have a fixed keel and water ballast, while the others have canting keels. In theory this should be a faster combination for sailing upwind in light airs - but this is obviously proving a falsehood.

How to round the top of the Shetlands is on the minds of the navigators today. Following the light winds they experienced rounding St Kilda, is likely there will be a wind shadow to the north of the Shetlands.

"The night was quite calm," described Vincent Riou on PRB earlier. "We’re sailing upwind and for the moment we can’t see anyone, but I’m sure that once the sun is higher we’ll be able to see our friends with the binoculars. We’re sailing in 8-10 knots of wind and we are waiting for a cleaner wind shift to kick in. VMI and Team 888 have taken a lot of risks. The Shetlands will be pretty tricky and to approach downwind of the islands may well be risky. We’ll really have to be careful. The passage marks like this are always a little bit stressful and there may be some nasty surprises in store."

On board Sill Roland Jourdain was happier in the light conditions as it was placing less stress on the repairs the crew have made to their Solent jib.


Mark Denton writes from on board Team 888

Tough calls out here on the course...yet again were waiting for the weather to play ball, but the systems were in are so wishy washy that from one synoptic chart to the next the changes are significant - so all you can work on is what you've got at the time, and what takes us to the waypoint quickest - the wind direction right now is the decision maker...

So we carry on, heading northeast in the hope that the forecast northeaster that the front boats experienced is still there - reports from weather buoys up ahead suggests it is, but we shall see...

Priority on board is still to eat and sleep as much as possible - the light winds are sporadic and change spped from 12-18 knots, which makes for many sail changes, the shifting in direction many tacks, which makes for much physical work - but there is no way we would miss a beat to rest...it's frustrating work to just keep the boat going 10 % in the right direction. I know what you're saying, "well Ellen did it on her own". We constantly remind ourselves of that fact, shifting gears on this boat is no easy task - my admiration for her achievements grows daily, as I am sure it does for the rest of the crew...

Will Oxley our navigator continues to work hard to find the elusive shifts that will help us claw our way back, but every time the front pack are making the same decisons - no silly people in this fleet - there's too much at stake, and too much talent out here for that. But we hang in there upbeat and positive.

We're surrounded right now by freezng fog which makes progress hazardous, and the sea state is short and lumpy which means maintaining boat speed is difficult, and has you gritting your teeth too often...