The brakes are well and truly on. Speedos slacken, tension rises as the leaders are dealt a saultary measure of the real Doldrums experience. Only leader Peyron has posted an average speed above 5 knots, while Jean Le Cam in ninth is struggling to make two knots.

Mike Golding had a go at gybing west during the afternoon and appears to have lost a few miles, whilst enjoying the relative sanctuary of racing virtually alongside each other in third and fourth places this afternoon Jean Pierre Dick and Armel Le Cléac’h were less than 1.5 miles apart, spurring each other on in the light going.

Seb Josse, for the moment, is credited with a gain, some 20 odd miles to the east now of Peyron, making back 2 miles or so, but Gitana Eighty has gybed back, heading SW for the moment.

Out to the most west, Roland Jourdain has made 13 miles of advance, covering exactly double the net mileage that leader Peyron made over the last four hours, and quickest of the top 10, some 110 miles back up the track from the leader. Jourdain's  gain is now  26  miles in eight hours.