Conditions have remained quite consistent: upwind, in an untidy sea with 18-20 knots of breeze, with only the return of daylight to break the monotony of 300 miles on the same tack. Pressure seems to have remained a little better on the more westerly side of the track, and Beyou will now have little more than 30 miles before reaching the turning mark of SN1 buoy off St. Nazaire. Then it will be time tpo break out the spinnakers for the final 45 mile downwind run to St. Gilles Croix-de-Vie.

While Beyou has made an impressive comeback on this leg, it is second-placed Lunven who presently poses the greatest threat to Yann Elies’ overall lead in the rankings, having finished second in Coruna on the first leg, with a time deficit of only 16 minutes. Elies presently lies in 21st place in this leg, six miles behind the leader. Armel Le Cleac’h (Brit Air) will not be far behind either, only 26 minutes adrift in Coruna, and now lying in 5th place, two and a half miles back.

Of the rookies, best placed are Fabien Delahaye (Port de Caen Ouistreham) and Christophe Espagnon (Groupe Legris Industries) in 28th and 29th places respectively, a little over seven miles from the front, underlining once again just how tough it is to break into even the top 20 in this year’s exceptional fleet. British skippers Nigel King and Jonny Malbon, in 40th and 43rd, have largely guarded their places overnight, but have lost a little ground on the front-runners and are now 10 and 12 miles behind the leader.

Estimated time of arrival for the first boats into St. Gilles is around 2200 local time tonight.