In the drag race south, Cape Horn and 3.5 points to the first boat to reach the scoring gate, is just 850 miles away. Once reaching The Horn, the racing will start to get interesting as the crews make the tactical decisions as to whether to go inside or outside the Falkland Islands.

The fleet is jib top reaching with water coming over the deck at a steady six degrees centigrade. From onboard Brasil 1 (Torben Grael), navigator Marcel Van Triest says he likes this part of the world, but he is not sure that his Brazilian friends are enjoying it as much as he is. “It’s a pretty desolate place, with not a lot of human interference. What is special, is that wherever you are in the world these days, there is always a trace of human interference. In this part of the world there is nothing. It makes you feel very small and very humble. There is absolutely nothing. There are no fishing vessels, no cargo ships, no aircraft. Just nothing. Just nature.”

Over the last six hours, the fleet has made a small but not significant compression. ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse) has recorded the longest 24 hour run of 508 nautical miles. Captain Paul (Cayard) and his Pirates onboard The Black Pearl has lost three miles in the last six hours, while the rest of the fleet has made some gains, Brasil 1 (Torben Grael) gaining 10 miles and ABN AMRO TWO nine miles.

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