A low pressure system heading across the Tasman Sea means the Round the World Clipper Race fleet's champagne sailing will soon be ended.

The low's current path takes it directly across the path of the bunched fleet, which is today about 800 miles from Southport on the Gold Coast.

Follow the Clipper fleet on its race tracker.

On Thursday the distance separating second and eighth places in the fleet was about 10 nautical miles, and the yachts were making 9-10 knots in warm sunny conditions.

Today, the easterly will begin to strengthen before backing around to the northeast. Skippers will be faced with getting the best ride out of wind speeds expected to rise to 30-35 knots as they encounter the low pressure system.

The sun cream, shorts and big floppy hats that were standard on deck will be swapped today for ‘foulies' as the approach to South Port looks like being as equally challenging as the approach to Tauranga was late last month.

Positions on the Clipper race website today show only 17nm separating the first four boats, De Lage Landen, Visit Finland, Gold Coast Australia and Geraldton WA.