The sailing in the closing stages of leg four of the Volvo Ocean Race is anything but straight forward and simple. With just 140 miles to the finish line in Rio de Janeiro, ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson) has extended their lead to 94 miles, and for a brief two hour spell earlier this morning, the team was heading 90 degrees away from course in an effort to avoid the lightest patches of breeze and find more wind.

There is a high pressure cell ahead of the fleet. As the high pressure widens, Mike Sanderson will be hoping that he can ease ABN AMRO ONE through the gap and that his nearest rival, Pirates of the Caribbean (Paul Cayard), will be caught. This is a worrying scenario for Paul Cayard as the boats behind him could make big gains in a short period of time. “It could all be different tomorrow and we might skate through as well,” said Cayard late last night. “One thing it is not, is straight forward and simple. We will just have to deal with it, whatever it is,” Pirate Paul concluded. Both ABN AMRO ONE and Pirates of the Caribbean are struggling to make 7.5 knots.

No one will be pushing harder than Torben Grael as he drives hard for a podium finish his home town. Grael is conjuring 8.1 knots out of this boat and while the crew onboard ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse) are putting up a fight and are doing everything they can to squeeze an extra fraction of speed out of the boat, they are only able to achieve 7.5 knots.

In fifth place, Ericsson Racing Team has nothing to lose by trying different tactics and is currently the fastest of the leading five boats as they position themselves 183 miles from the shore and to west of bulk of the fleet. “More losses in the last 24 hours to the leaders and we really have to hit a corner hard now; probably a loss, but then, we have nothing to lose,” wrote skipper Neal McDonald.

Onboard the repaired movistar, 1273 miles behind ABN AMRO ONE, Pepe Ribes still has not allowed the crew to tuck into their leg of cured ham. Upon interrogation, Pepe informed the crew that he did not want them scoffing themselves and then throwing it up again in the rough weather. “It is amazing how fast the waves have built up and we have been sailing with no mainsail, a small jib, even smaller staysail and still surfing at a regular 20 – 27 knots. In the last few hours, the wind has dropped to 30 knots and it feels sedate enough for us to almost want to pull out the deckchairs,” writes Mikey Joubert.

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