Date: Saturday Night Location: Just under 450 miles to go Weather: Clear skies, stars, calm seas, no wind and warm on deck Heading: Floating anywhere

Rightly or wrongly, we could see it coming and knew it was there and now we are sat in it. The high-pressure cell spinning off from the Atlantic squeezes past the Cape by being pushed below the land mass and kept above the low cycles offshore. Typically they move west to east along the edge of the Atlantic shelf, squashed into an elongated shape.

The reason we are here, getting more frustrated by our lack of progress than anyone else, is because we all, as a fleet, have to cross from south of the cell to the north of the cell at some point, there was no clear way around. With the 2nd and 3rd place yachts close on our heels, I found it very hard to justify any extra miles spent trying to go around the windless hole rather than going straight through the middle praying for the cell to move across quickly.

I firmly believe he who makes best progress and starts moving towards the waypoints leading into Cape Town first will probably remain in that place. My guys are concentrating hard on trying to keep the yacht pointing in roughly the right direction whilst the 2 knots of true wind circulates around the wind wand at the top of the rig.

It is nearly as difficult going nowhere in no breeze than it is getting a spanking from a strong icy wind at gale force. The latter is more a physical torture whereas as the current situation is more of a mental torture.

The concertina effect has been very pronounced at the Saturday evening sched with the positions illustrating how those first into the conditions stopped first and now everyone else has started to pile in from behind. We are keeping our fingers crossed onboard 'Imagine it. Done.' for the theory first in, first out, to come true.

Dee Caffari, skipper Imagine it. Done

Dee Caffari - press report/Yachting World, 2 April 2005