At around midnight last night, the fleet racing in leg seven of the Volvo Ocean Race all tacked onto starboard. Movistar (Bouwe Bekking) made some nice gains and is now positioned 17 miles to leeward of the fleet, due south of Narragansett Bay. The rest of the pack are separated laterally across the course by just three miles and just 17 miles separate first to last.

ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson/NZ) is back at the top, with Brasil 1 (Torben Grael/BRA) and Brunel (Matt Humphries/UK) in third place, pushing hard. Average speeds for the last six hours have been around 11 knots, but movistar now has more breeze in their northerly position.

Pirates of the Caribbean (Paul Cayard/USA) has had some problems with their instrument wand at the top of the mast, dropping them to fourth place. Justin Clougher climbed the rig on several occasions to fit replacements and he has now succeeded in fitting a reliable wand which is working properly and producing reliable information. In addition, they also got a small shark stuck on the rudder and had to stop and back down to remove it.

Smooth seas have been reported, but the latest weather reports are indicating that the wind will continue to increase during today, reaching 25 to 30 knots and shifting back to the left.

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