British yachtswoman Ellen MacArthur was cursing her luck as her bid to shatter the round-the-world sailing record was held up by light winds.

Her maxi-catamaran Kingfisher II was lagging nine hours behind Frenchman Bruno Peyron's record of 64 days, eight hours, 37 minutes and 24 seconds set last May after hitting a patch of light and unstable winds.

Frenchman Olivier de Kersauson, who left port on January 11 in his trimaran Geronimo has completed the first third of the Jules Verne Trophy race, and is a good way across the Indian Ocean heading towards Cape Leeuwin, Western Australia.

He was maintaining a lead of about 1,000 miles over the record.

"As I study the satellite pictures and grib files it seems almost unbelieveable that in all the miles of ocean around us - in fact the thousands of miles - that we should have to sail through this little bubble of light winds," MacArthur said five days after setting out.

"The weather gods have left us with no choice, the light patch has descended upon us.

"Lets hope that over the next few hours the wind turns to be in our favour ... There's still a very long way to go."

The 26-year-old yachtswoman from the landlocked English county Derbyshire won the transatlantic Route du Rhum last year in a monohull.

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