SAILOR Jon Duffield and his crew on board the BG Spirit endured a stormy start to the Global Challenge yacht race but they are currently in fourth place.

The race began on Sunday from Portsmouth and the 11 yachts caught the tail end of Hurricane Lisa as they progressed through the English Channel.

All the boats are captained by professional sailors but the rest of the crew are amateurs.

Mr Duffield is from Urchfont near Devizes. His colleagues at Westinghouse in Chippenham have been keeping track of his progress via websites.

As yet Mr Duffield has not posted a report on the BG Spirit website, but two of his crew members have and they revealed the first day at sea was turbulent.

Race organisers said most of the crews had suffered chronic sea sickness.

BG Spirit crew member Mark Setrem said in his report on the Internet that the crew almost lost a sail as the wind and waves continued to build.

He said: "Through the night the wind built to 48 knot gusts, waves were crashing over the deck as we headed along the English coast to get through the weather front and into calmer air."

Writing on Tuesday morning crew member James Davies described Sunday night's events as carnage.

He said: "Once the waves finally died down most people had dinner which was the first of our freeze dried meals. It's amazing how quickly people who've looked like death for 24 hours recover once the sun comes out and the wind dies down."

Julie Bruton-Gibney, a software engineer at Westinghouse, cheered Mr Duffield and his crew off at the start in Portsmouth.

She said: "It was exciting to see Jon go past on the parade sail up to the start line.

"Jon suffers from sea sickness so I am sure he will have suffered. But they are doing well. At the moment they are fourth and closing on boats in front of them."

The first leg is to Buenos Aires in Argentina. Then Mr Duffield will embark on a delayed honeymoon with his bride, Elena, who he married in April, before resuming the race.

The 30,000 mile race is dubbed the world's toughest yacht race sailing around the world against prevailing winds and currents.