The Volvo Ocean Race fleet is just over two thirds of the way through leg three from Melbourne to Wellington, New Zealand. Although the racing has been dramatic in the opening stages of the leg, the real tactical game will come into play once the fleet rounds Cape Farewell, 125 nautical miles ahead, and turns towards Cook Strait which comes complete with complex tides and unstable breeze.

Movistar (Bouwe Bekking) has been fighting for the lead with ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson), who smoked past them a couple of days ago leaving the Spanish boat to claw back the deficit for the rest of the leg. During the last six hours movistar has averaged the highest speed in the fleet and has gained a mile.

Pirates of the Caribbean (Paul Cayard) is still looking good for a podium finish and has a comfortable buffer of 30 miles between the Black Pearl and Brasil 1 (Torben Grael) in fourth place.

Further down the fleet, the second Dutch boat, ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse) is hoping to turn a fifth place into something better. Their injured crewman Johnny (Gerd van Poortman) who suffered a cut face and a badly bruised back is recovering. Navigator Simon Fisher said, when he spoke to RHQ, “We’re trying to rest Johnny as much as possible, because we need him to be good for the leg to Rio. He’s on deck a little bit, but we’re not making him do his normal watch. He’s improving and he is limping around the inside of boat now, getting bored with being in his bunk. He’s a man on the mend, so that’s good news.”

The order in the fleet remains unchanged tonight, although Ericsson is slipping further and further behind, mysteriously unable to match the speed of the leaders and sailing almost three knots slower.

Based on current speeds, the first boat is predicted to arrive in Wellington at 11.36 GMT tomorrow morning, however, with light winds forecast for Cook Strait, this is almost certain to slip back.

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