JULES VERNE DAY 2: KINGFISHER2 PAST CAPE FINISTERE

SUMMARY : 0719 GMT 31.1.03
Position : 11 21' W 43 58.8' N (passed Cape Finistere in the night now sailing south-west approx 180 miles off Portuguese coast)
Max boat speed : 34 knots
Max wind speed : 41.4 knots
Course: 248
Wind direction: 042

IN BRIEF:

* KINGFISHER2 passed Cape Finistere after a rough night in the North Atlantic - winds average 30 knots but set to decrease today. Wind direction more from the NE pushing KINGFISHER2 to sail slightly further west but still heading south averaging 19.87 knots.

* KINGFISHER2 will pass the sunken oil tanker Prestige later this morning.

* Crew settle in to watch system although conditions are still making life on deck, and below, pretty tough.

Listen to Ellen's latest audio this morning... Visit http://www.teamkingfisher.com and click on the 'Audio' icon on the menu bar or download from http://www.ocftp.com/audio/em310103a_uk.mp3

Kingfisher operating company of the day Comet : Comet is Britain's original out-of-town electrical chain and enjoys the number two position in the UK electrical market. http://www.comet.co.uk

IN DETAIL:

Latest communication with Ellen on board at 0900GMT:

“Its been a full on 24 hours since we started. We saw 60 knots of wind during yesterday, and some wild seas. But to make use of this weather window, we did the right thing to leave, even though sailing in these extreme conditions has not been that great. The wind off of Portugal is definitely going to shut down soon, but hopefully we’ll have pushed past in to the Trade Winds before it does”

"The watch system is working well - when the guys are not on deck they are just crashed out everywhere. If I go on deck to speak to the helmsman I am climbing over bodies still in their oilskins and on deck the spray is just constant - the helmsman is constantly ducking to avoid the worst of it - its pretty cold and and has been really quite violent onboard since the start.”

"But the food is good and everyone is eating properly apart from myself, Bruno and Benoit - we all caught some kind of bug during our very short pitstop in Plymouth. This hasn’t made this wet and cold 24 hours very easy!”

"When we passed Cape Finistere in the night the seas were very confused coming from the NW and the North but the sea conditions are steadying now, wind down to about 30 knots.

"We are about 180 miles offshore from the Portuguese coast west of Sanxenxo (port on the Spanish coast just north of Vigo). Not passed the 'Prestige' yet (sunken oil tanker) - it is about 40 miles south east of us and we will pass it about 50 miles to the west.

"There is no real next way point as such - we will make a final gybe towards the Trades in the south later today hopefully. The breeze will run out soon where we are right now so we are pushing south as fast as we can."

Life on board should improve considerably for the 14 crew by the weekend as KINGFISHER2 aims to hook into the Trade Winds. The watch system on board KINGFISHER2 is a four hours off-watch, four hours on-standby and four hours on-watch with a crew of 4 in each system. Guillermo Altadill, Neal McDonald and Hervé Jan are the 3 watch leaders on board - both Ellen and Andrew Preece are outside of the watch system to allow them to focus on their specific roles on board as navigator and media communications respectively. Visit http://www.teamkingfisher.com to see which watch system the crew are currently in (updates in real time).

The forecast for next 24 hours shows the wind staying in the North East decreasing to 20-25 knots. KINGFISHER2 will gybe later today heading south towards the Trade Winds.

Kingfisher plc is one of Europe's leading retailers and title sponsor of Ellen MacArthur since 1998. The 110 ft catamaran KINGFISHER2 is sailing under the colours of B&Q and Castorama, the principle home improvement businesses of the company.

To sign up for daily text messages, provided by 02, email sms@kingfisherchallenges.com

PARTNER OF THE DAY - BT Openworld:
BT Openworld have been a long-term partner of the Team Kingfisher and now via the BT Broadband facility Kingfisher2 will have broadband capacity on board to download weather information and send images and emails back to Team Kingfisher mission control in Cowes. These images will be streamed to a new dedicated portal http://kingfisher.sportal.com allowing viewers to see the latest images from onboard Kingfisher2. http://www.teamkingfisher.com/btopenworld