Sailing: MacArthur drops behind record pace in light wind

Ellen MacArthur's round-the-world record attempt suffered a setback yesterday as Kingfisher 2 moved unavoidably into an area of light winds off the west coast of Africa, half-way between the Canaries and the Cape Verde Islands.

"When you are only sailing at 10 knots, you know you are losing 7 miles an hour, that's 70 miles in 10 hours. It's very hard to deal with," a frustrated MacArthur wrote via e-mail yesterday. "I think losing miles like this is even harder than when there is a real boat next to you." A positioning summary at 0700 GMT yesterday morning showed Kingfisher 2 to be 9hr 25min behind world-record pace.

The area of calm was expected to ease last night, before the Trade Winds kick back in properly and propel Kingfisher 2 towards the equator. Yesterday's conditions made hard work for the crew, sailing with full main and gennaker sails, as sudden squalls require permanent attention.