Monday 8th January 2018

This week the top five boats in the Volvo Ocean Race are neck and neck in the doldrums. There have been some dramatic changes in position and Vestas 11^th Hour Racing, with Simon Fisher (former Otter Commodore) navigating are now nearest to the next waypoint as the fleet cope with sudden thunderstorms, squalls and calms.

SiFi foresaw these sudden changes in conditions when he reported from fourth position on the approach to the Solomon Islands on Saturday: “Over the next couple of days we will see the transition from steady (in relative terms) trade wind sailing to the more unstable conditions associated with the doldrums.  More convection, lighter winds and a likely compression of the fleet. At this point we could see the race restart and for this we will need to be on our toes as the battle north to the new trade winds will begin.”  It looks like SiFi got that right!

Stop Press – as of 16:56GMT on 2018-01-08 Vestas 11^th Hour Racing is in the lead…