27o49N 45o36W

We kind of knew it was going to happen, it always does! The once perfect position of us in first place, BG SPIRIT behind and Spirit of Sark way back in seventh place was bound to change - it has. For days we've been predicting light airs and they have been better than we expected. In the first leg from Portsmouth to Buenos Aires it seemed like we were sitting in the middle of a glassy sea, not going anywhere, loads of times. This leg we have been luckier. There have been light winds but they have not lasted long and after a short period of just going slow, we've been off again. It's now gone light in fact it's just gone! We woke this morning to the sullen faces of the on-watch who, during the night, had been zigzagging across the chart in search of some forward motion. A new set of position reports were in that although were not bad - we had actually gained a place (we were first), they were not good either. Our constant foe, Spirit of Sark has crept up into second place just 5 miles behind. It is a sign of how much we want to win this leg, indeed win the race, when even when we are in first place we are disappointed that the others are not further behind. We can now see Spirit of Sark over to our left, two yachts bobbing on a still pond, small puffy clouds littering the sky, the sun blazing a fiery trail across the water. It could be an idyllic scene, it is idyllic but for the fact that on both yachts there is a harnessed energy wanting, waiting for the wind to rise, standing poised to shuttle the crew into action steering, trimming and changing sails. Instead we are creeping about not wanting to affect the little boat speed we have.

We are nervously looking over at our nemesis and hoping that they don't move in front, don't catch some wind and don't sail off leaving us behind to wallow. There's not much we can do actually. All those speedy sail changes, perfect gybes mean nothing when there is no wind. We can send someone up the mast to look for wind; David is up there now. The helms and navigators can watch the numbers for anything that might help us get going and the rest of us can be alert, ready for the next tack to capture the little puff of available breeze. It is actually more stressful than when we've got 40 knots. It's another reason to send David up the mast!

Hopefully this will not last and we'll be on our way again soon. Hopefully the gods have not saved all the light stuff and are going to give it to us all at once. It's cruel really that a on a perfectly beautiful day in a spectacular environment where all worries should melt away like the ice in our imaginary gin & tonics we are instead fretting and fussing about racing. Still that's what we are doing - that's ocean racing I guess.

John Bass

All the crew would just like to wish our BP Explorer Project Manager, Claire Blakeway a very, very happy birthday today. We are so lucky to have you on our team and our thoughts will be with you. Our recommendation, take the day off from looking after us and leave answering any e-mails until tomorrow afternoon!