A combination of very light airs from the North East, a swell, and an incoming tide made for some tricky sailing. Jinjy discovered sailing backwards, and never quite got to the start line, as half a knot of tide pushed her back up river. Demolition fared a little better and got to the start line but drifted into the marker buoy at the end. She had to start again as a penalty, and then suffered the same fate as Jinjy and could not get back to the start. In the meantime Big Purple, Jetta and Jabadeo were creeping slowly along the south bank, out of the river towards the windward mark. Big Purple arrived at the mark almost at the same time as Shere Khan, which had chosen a course nearer to the middle of the river. Big Purple rounded the windward mark on her port side, but sadly it should have been a starboard rounding. When Shere Khan let Big Purple know of the error Big Purple had to unwind her previous rounding and then round to starboard, all whilst nearly becalmed. Big Purple’s problems allowed Jetta to edge round the mark, and to establish a small lead on Big Purple. Shere Khan led the way back to the finish off Bosahan Beach, carried slowly along by the tide. This had the strange effect of reversing the apparent wind direction from North East to South West, as in the calm conditions the moving boat created her own wind. Origo struggled for a long time before rounding the first mark, and the usually speedy Jacobi retired, rather than risk damage to sails flapping in the swell.