Tiring 24 hours of squalls for Sir Robin Knox-Johnston

Sir Robin Knox-Johnston is still in third position tonight despite a very tiring 24 hours in the Route du Rhum - Destination Guadeloupe Race.

A thrilling battle for the third podium is taking place, and Sir Robin has been within a mile of rival Jean-Paul Froc on Groupe Berto at times in the past 24 hours. He says the fight is very stimulating and exciting.

Sir Robin is now 71 miles behind the second-placed boat, Wilfrid Clerton's Cap Au Cap Location, and 29 miles ahead of fourth-placed Andrea Mura on Vento di Sardegna.

There have been plenty of rain squalls and fickle, dying wind to contend with over the past 24 hours. He is currently making 5.2 knots in around 8 knots of Easterly breeze.

Here is Sir Robin's blog sent Sunday evening.

The most frustrating time in this race since trying to beat around Ushant and finding I was tacking between 155 degrees.

Once I had found out how to bypass the Fleet Broadband from demanding a User name and Password this morning, and that took three hours, a grey black cloud appeared to the south east and the troubles began. Initially we were pushed off course 95 degrees, then the wind dropped and the sails slatted and we drifted, gybing once, not that it made any difference.

Eventually we got a little wind, but it quickly backed to the East. Ten minutes later we were almost tacked as it swung southerly. Without working wind instruments I have to sit in the cockpit so I can see the Windex on the masthead and react quickly and try to keep the boat moving.

It appears the boats near me have been suffering the same way, so this area of rain squalls is fairly extensive. The sea is quite calm so it looks as if we have all been fooled by the same forecast. The stronger winds are not here after all.

The sky is clearing to the East so maybe some steadiness will come with that. After only two hours last night I could do with some sleep. Just one more rain squall to come, I hope.

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.

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