After all the excitement of the transit of Fiji on Friday night, the pace has dialled down a few notches for Sunday (just as it should), and the crews have enjoyed some glorious sailing.

While there's been nothing as dramatic as a place change to report, the eastern wing of the fleet has continued to come good, with Ericsson 4 pushing her lead over PUMA up to 17 miles as the day has unfolded.

Ericsson 3 (+28) and Green Dragon (+58) have remained pretty stable relative to the leader, but Telefonica Blue has suffered a similar loss to her western ally, with her deficit rising to 53 miles at 16:00 GMT.

Not much for anyone to complain about then, as the miles have peeled off the total in comfortable style. Aboard Ericsson 4, Ryan Godfrey acknowledged another landmark ... "We recently just passed the 8000 nm to go point." But then acknowledged, "It's funny to hear the guys saying 'only 8000 to go' - our minds must be bending a little out here as 8000 nm is still a b***** long way to go."

As if to reinforce this judgement, Godfrey described how the crew had taken to a new sport -trying to throw peas through the clew ring on the mainsail. Let's hope it's not a really slow leg, and they need the calories.

Clearly, things are pretty relaxed aboard Ericsson 4, now that they have their lead back. Godfrey described "just happily rolling along on our endless port tack reach; boat speed a healthy 14 knots. We are only changing sails every four hours or so. Although of late it does feel like that four hour interval is falling exactly into the middle of my off-watch - which is rather disappointing." All is well with the world - there is something to complain about.

Aboard Green Dragon, skipper, Ian Walker was in a chipper mood, as he'd just found some powdered milk for a "nice" cup of tea.

Everyone was taking the chance to rest up before they hit the Southern Ocean, and Media Crew Member Gustav Morin reported from Ericsson 3 that they were being "a bit more thoughtful with eating, sleeping and sticking to the watch system properly. We can't afford the guys to burn out and be sick after the first part of the leg, and not be 100 percent when we reach the Southern Ocean, where the big stuff starts to go down."

Morin reported a relatively small injury list for this leg so far, just sore ribs and twisted ankles from the initial fast reaching out of the Yellow Sea and into the not-so Pacific.

Morin attributed this in part to the absence of "Doctor" Richard Mason and his "no mercy medical clinic" - the Kiwi watch captain is taking a break on this leg, and Morin reckons the crew are healthier as a result. Although if you watch the clip of the clinic in action, you'd think the guys would be more careful, not less, when Mason is on board.

But no, Morin lists the injuries that Mason has dealt with on previous legs; "broken teeth, concussions, open wounds in hands, taking of nails after fingers had been stuck in the runners, curing stomach illness and taping up bleeding heads."

Walker and his crew were also taking the chance to recharge. "It is super flat water and medium winds with fast reaching sails up," he said. "I cannot remember such a prolonged period where you have not had to hang on with both hands to move around the boat. It is also unusually quiet and with few sail changes it makes for perfect sleeping conditions to recharge the batteries before all that lies ahead."

What lies ahead is a difficult transit of the light air in a high pressure zone, before they can break into the powerful westerlies of the Southern Ocean - with all that that will subsequently entail.

So, however beautiful conditions may be at the moment, Walker has taken precautions, just in case anyone has second thoughts. "We are now heading due south towards New Zealand which is causing some anxiety with the two Kiwis onboard. There was already some talk of swimming ashore as we sailed through the islands off the eastern tip of Fiji, so we will have to stay out of swimming range of the New Zealand coast. I have hidden the passports just in case."