Race 1 Day 3: Tackling the Bay of Biscay

As the fleet makes steady progress south past the UK and towards Northern France, Skippers and crew are focusing on the next challenge; the Bay of Biscay, notorious for violent storms and heavy seas.

Skipper of second placed Sanya Serenity Coast, Wendy Tuck, reports: “This morning we wake to a breeze still on the nose and we are about to start our passage across the Bay of Biscay.

“At the moment, it is being kind to us, but it does have a bit of a reputation of not being very nice.”

Ahead of the fleet, the weather is changing somewhat.A new low moving southeast across the race track should reach the Portuguese coast by the weekend. Whilst it does not look particularly strong, it will provide several tactical options for the twelve teams.

Over the last 24 hours, positions continued to change on the leader board and 98 nautical miles now separates first placed Unicef from Greenings, in twelfth place, who selected a more westerly route as it entered the Celtic Sea yesterday.

The front four leaders, who broke away with the strong flowing tides in the Irish Sea, remain close, with 18 nautical miles separating Unicef, Sanya Serenity Coast, Visit Seattle and Dare To Lead.

Skipper Nikki Henderson, on third placed Visit Seattle, said: “Well, the conclusion of the last 24 hours is that Wendo and Bob are really, really good at making their boats move approximately 1 knot faster than us.

“Definitely a frustrating night, but that's racing for you!”

Not taking his lead for granted, Unicef Skipper, Bob Beggs, reports: “On the AIS (Automatic Identification System) we have a constant reminder of the competition with Visit Seattle, Sanya Serenity Coast and Dare To Lead helping to keep our competitive juices flowing.”

And the competitive spirit is very much present further down the fleet.

HotelPlanner.com and Liverpool 2018, in tenth and eleventh place respectively, are jostling for position and are “currently yo-yoing” according to the latter’s Skipper, Lance Shepherd.

Gaëtan Thomas, Skipper of Garmin, currently in seventh place said: “We are trying to catch up boat by boat, now we are nearly up with Qingdao and Nasdaq.”

Meanwhile, Rob Graham, Skipper of Nasdaq, says: “Our focus is on chasing down Dare To Lead, Visit Seattle, and Sanya Serenity Coast, whilst staying ahead of the group chasing us.”

*Note: All race standings and forecasting accurate at time of publishing.