After a 24-hour period of mountainous seas and 45 knot winds, overnight the fleet was all but becalmed. Now, as they approach The Falkland Islands, 130 miles to the north east, all boat have better breeze and speeds are back up.

Tactical decisions have come in to play and Brasil 1 (Torben Grael) has gained 23 miles in the last six hours, by managing to slip through the Le Maire Strait, inside Staten Island, while rest of the fleet opted to stay further south. She has overtaken Pirates of the Caribbean (Paul Cayard) and is now only 13 nautical miles behind the leading boat, ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson) and sailing quicker. She has positioned herself to the north of the fleet and could still make the choice of leaving The Falklands to starboard, while the rest will almost certainly pass to the south of the islands.

Ericsson Racing Team (Neal McDonald) has closed to within seven miles of ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse) after having a tough 24 hours. In the approach to Cape Horn a glimmer of hope in catching the second Dutch boat had the Ericsson boys hoisting a bigger spinnaker at first light. “We took off down the first wave with such pace that you would swear blind that we were being propelled by something infinitely more powerful than the wind,” wrote navigator Steve Hayles. Fighting on the edge of control, the motion of the boat was so bad that their battery bank broke loose and the terminals began to short on some carbon structure inside the boat starting a resin fire. The crew was able to strip down the battery bank and lash each cell in place before wiring it all back up.

After over 4,500 nautical miles and 13 days at sea, only 58 miles separates first to fifth position

After the drama onboard Movistar (Bouwe Bekking) yesterday, she has passed Cape Horn, scoring one point, and is now heading for the port of Ushuaia. The Chilean navy is checking on the team regularly and asking for updates. “Even though we are fine, it is good to know that big brother is keeping an eye on us,” wrote Bouwe Bekking this morning. The team has spent the past 24 hours since yesterday’s incident when the boat took on massive amounts of water, clearing up the mess and trying to get their equipment working. Their generator, which was totally submerged, has coughed into life, but they are still having problems with the alternators which were also under water.

“We have had some small electrical fires onboard, all little things, mainly motors of small bilge pumps, which have given up, but in my opinion, it is amazing that the electronics have survived so well,” observed Bekking.

The team is using their emergency water supply (50 litres) for the time being as their water maker has not recovered. They will install their spare unit if taking the existing one to pieces and rebuilding it does not work.

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