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Brian Thompson and Alister Richardson, 17th on Tquila, “We had a good start. Entering the Alderney Race the wind got quite extreme and really tested ourselves and the boat. And so I am glad the mast is still in the boat considering the slamming. After we passed there we noticed that the ballast tanks had emptied into the boat. Luckily we noticed that before we tacked or it would have flooded the electronics, so we managed to empty it but then we had no ballast on for the rest of the race, that has cost us some time. But to have got through this first leg and only be an hour and eight minutes in the grand scheme of things that is not too bad. It is not a big deal and a lot of miles to go, so we are overall pretty pleased.

Rather like other weather terms such as a “trough,” it may be difficult to understand what a ridge means for the boats out there racing. So we have tried to find a simple explanation about what this ridge entails and how it will be a hurdle for the ULTIM skippers in the next 24 hours, as they make their way to Martinique.

Year on year nothing much seems to change about the amazing Japanese skipper Kojiro Shiraishi. The youthful zest for life, the permanent megawatt smile, humble demeanour but most of all the burning, single minded passion that has driven him from humble, non sailing beginnings as a dreaming teenager in his native Japan, through learning ocean racing from his inspirational Japanese mentor Yukoh Tada to finally becoming the first Asian skipper to finish the Vendée Globe on the 2020-2021 race, Koji has become one of the most popular and respected skippers in the IMOCA fleet.

On the 16th Transat Jacques Vabre Normandie Le Havre as the final Class40 skippers are reaching Lorient, the ULTIMs are continuing to make rapid headway south and this morning were at the latitude of Lisbon. An amendment made by the Race Directors added the island of Porto Santo (Madeira) to the course. They have to keep this island to starboard, keeping them more to the east and so avoiding the influence of the nasty weather that is moving in with a second front forecast late this morning for the trimarans at the rear.

As storm Ciaran is expected on the French Atlantic coast on Wednesday evening – set to blast across the course that they would have otherwise been scattered along - the first Class40s reached the port of Lorient La Base during the night to seek shelter. The the fleet of 40 footmonohulls fought a battle to the finish, sometimes in conditions which took a toll on the sailors and the boats. On this short 320 miles course from Le Have. Alla Grande Pirelli sailed by Ambrogio Beccaria and Nicolas Andrieu in the lead from start to finish, across the Bay of Seine to the Courreaux de Groix, won, arriving on the stroke of midnight. The mastery, the Franco-Italian tandem managed to open up a good gap with the rest of the fleet along north coast of Brittany.