Nothing, absolutely nothing kills the buzz of an anticipated race like light air. Check.
After starting in fresh northwesterly winds on Sunday, the fleet saw the breeze disappear as the leading boats headed west past Cherbourg contending with powerful spring tides. Since then it has been a big battle to weather Brest and get into the Bay.
The two notable features of the contest to date have been the dismasting of Bureau Vallée, which brought a sudden end to the race for Louis Burton and Davy Beaudart, and the early dominance of APIVIA skippered by Charlie Dalin and Paul Meilhat.
In fact APIVIA has just completed a move to the east that has seen its 30-nautical mile lead cut to just four miles, as the front-runners finally start to get into new breeze from the east which is enabling them to accelerate to the south.
But the long-term outlook for the skippers is not looking at all easy. They are likely to enjoy a fairly fast passage along the Spanish coast and around Cape Finisterre, but then the breeze will start to ease off going down the Portuguese coast. Read more.