After several days of waiting, ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson) has at last hooked into the strong westerly breeze which is propelling his team quickly towards Cape Town for the finish of leg one of the Volvo Ocean Race at a rate of over 17 knots. What a relief for skipper Mike Sanderson who, over the past few days, had seen Brasil 1 (Torben Grael) eat his lead down to almost nothing. “I wouldn’t swap any part of what we have on ABN AMRO ONE for anything,” Sanderson wrote yesterday.

The order in the chasing pack has not changed overnight, although ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse) is catching second placed Brasil 1 quickly and is achieving the highest average speed of the fleet. They are just five miles behind Brasil 1, while fourth placed Ericsson (Neal McDonald) are another 20 miles behind again but sailing quicker than Brasil 1.

In the next 24 hours, we can expect to see ABN AMRO ONE and perhaps the others, start to clock up 400 nm 24 hour runs once again.

Sunergy and Friends are now reaching at 15 knots. “A bit bouncy, but, hey, nice and fast,” wrote navigator Campbell Field this morning, after they spent most of yesterday hard on the wind.

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