Sir Robin Knox-Johnston intent on overtaking rivals in Route du Rhum race

Sir Robin Knox-Johnston is chasing the fourth-placed boat in the Route du Rhum - Destination Guadeloupe race Rhum class, rival Jean-Paul Froc on Groupe Berto.

Sir Robin moved up a ranking to fifth position again overnight after lots of gybes on his Open 60 Grey Power to try and find the best wind angle in the calm Trade winds weather.

He said the Azores high is being thrown around and has descended so all the yachts have calmer weather than expected, slowing everyone up.

Sir Robin is currently making 6.8 knots In around 10 knots of East North Easterly wind. He is now 35 miles behind fourth place, and 63 miles behind the third-placed boat, Cap Au Cap Location, skippered by Wilfrid Clerton.

This morning Sir Robin told BBC Radio 4 Today Show's Rob Bonnet he was intent on catching the fourth-placed yacht. "It is exciting when you see you are gaining on the boat in front. People think you are out here reading a book or having a gin and tonic, but you're actually very busy all of the time.

"Mentally I'm used to it as I've done it before, but this is a big and hard boat to handle and it is the physical work that takes the toll."

Class leader Anne Caseneuve on Aneo is 1471 miles from the finish at Point-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe, and Sir Robin has 2056 miles to go.

Here is Sir Robin's latest blog sent Thursday morning.

Gybing quite often during the night in a fruitless chase after a better wind angle. Soon after the sun rose, the check of the horizen showed a sail bearing South West probably about two to three miles away. It's not one of the Rhum class I think, so a Class 40 or a cruiser.

The first flying fish found on deck this morning. Only about 40mm's long so far too small to cook.

The sun is hotter today, the first time I have really felt its heat. Need to start building up protection.

A few chores to do, like topping up the fuel tank, and then I shall try and get some rest for a while.

RKJ

You can track Sir Robin and Grey Power here on the official race tracker.

It updates every hour.

The Clipper Race will continue to post his blogs here as well.

For the latest updates, see the @ClipperRace twitter feed.