Day Two, Sunday, 2030hrs:  After a stimulating day's sailing along the length of the south coast, turning to windward in very sailable breezes and enjoying more sunshine than much of the rest of Ireland, the leaders in the Fastnet 450 are now struggling through a period of frustratingly light airs as they negotiate the Atlantic swell off the West Cork coast and try to find boat speed over the last twenty miles to the Fastnet Rock.

Things had been looking good for Chris Power Smith's J/122 Aurelia as she closed on port tack towards the land on course towards Glandore, and lifted up from under the following boats as the breeze backed. But as it backed it eased further and then went all over the place with a wind full of holes, and at around 1730hrs Aurelia tacked off Galley Head and went seaward again in search of firmer conditions.

Chris Power-Smith's J122 Aurelia

But out at sea she found the Grand Soleil 40 Nieulargo (Denis & Annamarie Murphy) likewise significantly slowed, so the Power Smith boat tacked again to maintain cover, and speeds are beginning to improve at 2000 hrs as they feel what may be the first of a forecast new sou'wester, but it's still very fitful.

Denis and Annamarie Murphy's Nieulargo

There's quite a generational thing going on board Aurelia, as her crew includes 16-year-old Max Goodbody and his father Richard, who normally sail on the family's J/109 White Mischief in Dublin Bay where the Father and Grandfather of all the Clan is legendary helmsman Tim Goodbody who, in a long and extraordinarily varied sailing career, didn't get around to doing his first Fastnet Race until 1987.

Yet although it may have taken him some time to take on the challenge of The Rock, he made a beauty of it when he finally did so, as he was lead helm on the Dubois 40 Irish Independent as the top-scoring member of the Irish Admirals Cup Team, and they won the Fastnet Race overall.

This made for quite a moment as Irish Independent came round the rock in daylight and already doing very well all of 33 years ago. So even though Aurelia will be rounding in the dark, it will be quite a milestone for family history, and if they can continue to stay ahead of Nieulargo (where some other formidable sailing families are involved), that will be all to the good for the Goodbodys.

With the new sou'wester being the harbinger of a full gale by tomorrow (Monday) night, it's expected that the fleet should be well across the finish line at the entrance to Cork Harbour by then. But for some of the less well-placed boats further down the fleet, the fact that they've been more or less slugging to windward since coming past the Muglins at the entrance to Dublin Bay since lunchtime yesterday has seen a couple of boats already diverting into Cork Harbour. Yet down off the coast of West Cork, the battle for the win is still being very emphatically played out, and the picture should be clearer for our next report tomorrow (Monday) morning.