In the last 6 hours it appears all the boats have now escaped the high pressure ridge that has been responsible for some of the massive losses in the past day.

ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson) have just 401 miles to sail before reaching the finish line in Baltimore and second placed movistar (Bouwe Bekking) are continuing their fight, clawing back 3 miles since the last report.

The entire fleet are now sailing in breezes of 15 to 20 knots from the south west but these are forecast to back to the north and decrease to as little as 4 knots in the next 18 hours. This will affect the front runners first and may give the rest of the fleet a chance make up some valuable ground, although it is unlikely to see any changes in the leaderboard just yet.

Paul Cayard and his crew on Pirates of the Caribbean are currently lying in third.

Brasil1 (Torben Grael) looked to be threatening Ericsson (John Kostecki) in fourth place at the last report but the Swedish boat have managed to pull away and increase the gap between the two boats to 16 miles.

At the back of the pack, ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse) will be disappointed to see they are now 368 miles behind their team mates on “Black Betty”. In the current conditions that is a full days sailing.

Thoughts will no doubt be on dry land and a proper meal which must be all the encouragement an offshore sailor needs after two weeks at sea.

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