It’s been another beautiful day of sailing in the North Atlantic. The sun warming the deck, the breeze on the quarter and a gentle swell. The only thing that we have done today, apart from sailing obviously, is an early evening swap of kite halyards.

If you think that you have read that first paragraph somewhere before you would be right. You read it in yesterday’s blog! Today has been almost identical to yesterday. Starboard gybe, full main, Mr Medium the Second.

The only difference being that there has been an extra layer required on deck as the temperature has dropped a little, but it is still pleasant, only requiring a jacket and maybe some trousers.

Leg 8 crew member Denis McCourt was the mast man this evening, popping up to the top to do the halyard swap and take a few obligatory top of the mast selfies.

Another time change has now seen us move back on to UTC, so now only one more hour to move and we are back where we started time wise, on BST. Yet another milestone passed as we grow ever closer to closing the loop on this return back to London.

Although we have no chance of catching the front of the fleet it certainly is making compelling viewing. The forecast for the lead boats looks to be throwing down one last challenge, this coupled with the fact that the proximity to the coast will mean that tide (and lots of it!) becomes a large factor, could mean that there might be a big reshuffle of the fleet before the line is crossed.

Ichor OUT!