Alex has slowed as he is approaching the equator and the wind appears to have veered so he has it more on the beam as expected. But he has only slowed to 14 knots!
He has a lead of 89 miles over second place who currently is showing slightly faster, but all the leading boats have slowed. The wind will veer more as the boats get across the equator into the South Atlantic anti-clockwise circulatory system, but then slowly back as they get further south and everyone will speed up again.
In simple terms, mid South Atlantic, the wind on the African side comes from the south and on the American side they are from the north, and they swing round from south through east to northerly at the equator which is what the boats have now. Following this, the winds will tend to be westerly when level with the southern tip of Africa, and this where it joins the westerlies of the Roaring Forties. (For those confused, winds are named for the direction from which they come).
So it will be hot on board right now, very hot, but there is some wind across the deck which brings a bit of relief.
The next British entry and First Lady is Samantha Davis who is 229 miles astern of Alex but has moved up to 7th position. Jean Le Cam has dropped to 4th place, but has closed a bit to 106 miles behind Alex. The differences in speeds are just proportions of knots, so keeping the concentration for the extra fraction of speed is what counts.