Michel Desjoyeaux tops the tables again tonight, fastest in the fleet, best 24hour run at 389 miles, best speed between the rankings. But his lead over Roland Jourdain stays at 81.1 miles, though we might expect that to have grown by the morning.

Like smitten teenage sweethearts Armel Le Cléac’h and Vincent Riou are back together again, just eleven miles apart, with PRB, fifth, making better speed tonight.

Sam Davies and Brian Thompson have both made over 16 knots between the polls and Thompson is second quickest on the 1h speed-gun tonight.

Derek Hatfield has told more about his capsize:
“ After a week battling storm after storm, I thought that we would get some relief today with lighter winds. Last night it was blowing 40-47 knots all night long with gusts to 55 knots on occasion. In the gusts, the autopilot was struggling to keep the boat tracking and would round up into the wind. This morning the seas were huge, maybe 25 feet and confused but nothing we couldn't handle normally. I was exhausted and laying in my bunk and crash, the boat went over and I ended up on the ceiling with all kinds of articles whizzing past me. The boat came upright immediately and the carnage inside was immediate. I rushed on deck and my heart sank to see two of the spreaders dangling limp on the shrouds.”

“ The shock hits you quickly that this is not fixable and the end of the race is here already. I started to cry and it was uncontrollable. I called Patianne and told her, she was gutted and shocked. It's now been a long day of stabilizing the rig and cleaning up the interior so I can live a little easier and I am still in shock. I feel so bad for Patianne and all the people that have supported us for five long years both financially and emotionally. I know it will pass and we will turn it all around, but the devastating feeling is still here for now. I've headed for Australia to get the boat safely tied to a dock and figure out what to do next. We will persevere and continue on because that is what we do, but right now it's unbelievably difficult. Thank you so much for following and believing in us, we will try and turn it around somehow.”

And there are still difficult decisions to be taken by Seb Josse (BT) one of his rudders remains seriously  misaligned, the reports say ‘ there is no play in the steering system and therefore it is a bonded joint of some kind that has been broken.”  Josse has sailed more than 500 miles north since Boxing Day when he, too, was capsized by a wave