After an exciting start from Annapolis, Maryland, early today, the fleet is back at sea again and racing hard in leg six, at 400 nautical miles, the shortest, but possibly the most influential leg of the Volvo Ocean Race.

The fleet has 86 miles to sail before leaving the tricky sailing usually associated with the Chesapeake Bay behind them, but a new weather system will bring up to 25 knots of breeze later tonight.

Mark Rudiger, the new navigator onboard Ericsson (Neal McDonald), says that there is not much of a passing lane once the fleet gets to New York and he thinks that it is possible that fleet may cross the finish line in the same order as it exited the Chesapeake Bay. The next few hours are critical as the teams focus on pushing their boats as hard as possible.

The arrival in New York, poses all sorts of challenges including lots of narrow channels that the fleet must keep within, along with fishing boats, barges, tug boats, police guards, not to mention the shoals which must be avoided and the skyscrapers which will disrupt the wind.

But tonight, in an increasingly familiar pattern, the movistar (Bouwe Bekking) crew has broken the important piece of gear which drives their two main winches, necessitating the transfer of the spinnaker sheet to the mainsheet winch in every maneuver. “The forecast is still for 25 knots later during the night; hopefully we can lay through and not have to tack in big seas,” skipper Bouwe Bekking said.

The first four boats are all within a mile of each other with Brunel (Grant Wharington), the Australian entry which has just rejoined the fleet after an extensive refit, in fifth place, while the two Dutch boats, ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse) and ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson) are uncharacteristically bringing up the rear.

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