Skipper's log: Ian Lipinski (France), Crédit Mutuel (Class40)

"It's going well, the sea has calmed down, it's more liveable than yesterday. We’re go straight to the Doldrums, we can see some big clouds arriving for the end of the morning…

"We’ve got 20 knots of wind now, we are on a port tack under medium spinnaker with a reef in the mainsail, that’s been working.

"The sea was big and a little choppy yesterday, it made life on board tough - hard to move around.

"It's easier to sail when you're in front, you have more time for manoeuvres, you act without haste. We have the time to make the right decisions, we would have to be like that all the time, but it's easier when we're in front!

"I hope we won’t face the same scenario as Charal, we don’t want that to happen to us tomorrow! 

"This is my first time in the Doldrums, it's going to be fun but I don’t like my storms to...and it looks very big there now. Our goal is to get in and out as soon as possible! But at the moment we can only see a big 500-mile cloud to cross, I don’t see too much strategy. The fatigue is setting in, it’s inevetibale, but it could be worse, the conditions have been cool, except for first 24 hours. Yesterday, we crossed paths with a Mini, we talked with them, it was really nice, Adrien and I recalled some stories of our time in them (Minis)! It's my old boat in the lead, it doesn’t surprise me, it's a really an incredible boat!"