It's been an eventful third week in the Vendee Globe onboard HUGO BOSS, I continued my DIY expertise in the Southern Atlantic, manoeuvred into 2nd place as race tactics came to the forefront, and now I'm ending the week in 5th position holding strong in the leading pack.
Just a short update from me this morning as I've been busy doing some media the past couple of days, with a live webchat with the office yesterday afternoon and a live interview with BBC Breakfast this morning. It's great that technology has developed to allow these sorts of live link-ups to happen to try and convey to everyone watching at home what it's like out here, hopefully there will be more throughout the race!
As anticipated the change in the positions has come this morning as those boats which were further West picked up the weather front and increased their speeds to the East. I'm keeping up now, averaging around 20 knots and have come out pretty much where I expected, but I'll be fighting to get back up the leader board as we make our way East to pass South of the Cape of Good Hope in the coming days.
I have also seen that Francois Gabart has just beaten my 24 hour Open 60 distance record, with an amazing 474.5 miles in the past 24 hours and there will be more to come as he is averaging 22 knots. I've held the record for almost 10 years and was expecting it to go during this race, I'm really pleased it's gone to Francois on his first Vendée Globe. Well done Francois!
You can see a bit more of what I've been up to this week in my week 3 highlight video here: http://youtu.be/_nK1sW36vQ0
You can also keep up to date with me throughout the day, and night, by following my Twitter @AlexThomson99 or at facebook.com/alexthomsonracing.