Europe 1 New Man Star - Word from the leading British women

Bilou's (SILL) only comment on the night was "It was hard, it was hard!". This time not because of icy 40 knot headwinds, but because the fleet popped out the strong winds and in to light and extremely variable breeze. Tough, because the instability means the skippers must continuously sail change and trim to maintain any speed at all. Not good for sleep or life onboard!

MichDesj (PRB) had it tough though in the final hours of the last storm as he mainsail was torn along a 3 metre length just below the 3rd reef. He thinks it is repairable, but has had to sail south to get to calmer weather to do it. He is now 110 miles from the leaders.

Catherine Chabaud on WHIRLPOOL has pulled back 80 miles in just two days, benefiting from a more southerly option. She is now just 0.5 of mile behind Mike Golding on distance to finish, but still holding a good southerly position.

Some of the skippers are starting to feel the fatigue. Franck Cammas (GROUPAMA) commented on the hallucinations he was having, with a second person onboard. He refused to comment on whether it was man or woman that was apparently steering the boat for him!

Brief words from Ellen this morning :

"Its really frustrating. In the past 4 hours I've had every combination of sails up, and now the wind is shifting by up to 50 degrees, and from 8 to 16 knots. It doesn't get much harder in terms of keeping the boat going."

Emma Richards (PINDAR) still leads Class 2 to maintain the British female duo at the front, but now only by 40 miles as the Italian Andrew Garcia closes in. She lost the wind instruments from the top of the mast last night, so its back to basics onboard PINDAR. Alex Thomson is maintaining his third place, trailing Emma by 87 miles.

Emma's words from onboard Pindar:

We just received the following from Emma which she wrote on Saturday evening. Since the weekend, Emma has been fighting problems with loose lowers on rig, an 's' bend in the mast which she straightened by putting in a 6 tacks (to tighten up the rig) and lost her wind instruments overboard during the night when she was battling 60" knot winds.

Emma has been taking the wind 'on the nose' for some time and overnight has lost a little ground on Nostro Azurro but she is still in the lead and to paraphrase the official web site for Europe 1 from Saturday, "the organisers salute the superb performance of Emma Richards who is 60 miles ahead of the 60-foot GEB and 80 miles ahead of Alex Thomson and Nostro Azzurro ..."

Race Log, Saturday 10th June:

Well where to start, excited since the position report this morning, what a great feeling, always looking forward to the next one, it is great motivation.

That lead came after a good shift yesterday, which turned out to be just ok, then during a night of a steady wind speed and direction I got more sleep than I have in a week, maybe 5/6 hours just waking every hour to check I was still going in the right direction.

Maybe one day I'll be embarrassed to find out that a competitor sailed right by me with my sails flapping - lets hope not!!

I have set up the alarm on the radar which I am using a lot now. There is something very odd about really being fast asleep on a boat that is doing 10 knots and no-one is watching. The last time I woke from this marathon sleep it was light, started on my little maintenance list, read through the relevant pages of our weather book we keep on board the fine ship Pindar.

Now Miranda has read it before so I could have just asked her why we have mist/fog before a front. I still don't know, and the analysis I received this morning was so different from the forecast I received yesterday and so I think I missed the front anyway, and the wind shifted the other way. I hope that wasn't just human error but a real change from the forecast. Anyway this has meant I have found myself forced a lot more North than hoped, but it would be foolish to tack away from the gaining tack; I have only 15deg north of my desired course now. And this is why receiving position reports has become such an important part of life aboard, the whole reason for being here, taking a faster and shorter route than the next person.

I think that I will never really make single-handed status, because every little victory, from repairing the jib halyard to receiving the position report this morning, Pindar 60 miles in the lead, there is nobody here to share it with.

(Thank you BT for sponsoring the sat bills - I really don't think they know what they are in for). I spoke to John Beattie for an interiew yesterday, who must have thought I was crazy! have been bouncing around, bracing myself in everything I do its almost comical! Writing this is a test of steady hands in each wav;, yep I'm still crashing around.

Now imagine earlier, I ran out of paper in the weather fax machine, a hard job in the calmest of days, nearly impossible on this roller coaster. I ended up wedging myself on the chart table almost getting the paper in then a wave would jump it out again. a frustrating 45 mins, most of which is on camera as I forgot it was on.

Another moment I would have preferred to share with someone. So guess this email comes down to the fact I won't merit singlehander status, and have such a high respect for everyone taking part in the Vendee Globe later this year and I will be following it every step of the way - Show them again how its done Ellen!!!

And I would like to find out what Alex's thoughts on singlehanded sailing are! Anyone know if he is enjoying it, in between his sail repairs? And does he jump for every communication that comes through Satc, listen to loud music above the waves crashing? All for now, the doublehanded sailor. . . . . . . Miranda hope you had that Friday evening beer for me!