The time has come for the Volvo Ocean Race teams to tack onto port and head across the Atlantic. In the past six hours the ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson), Brasil 1 (Torben Grael), Pirates of the Caribbean (Paul Cayard) and Ericsson Racing Team (Neal McDonald) have all tacked and are currently heading south east, avoiding the southern most tip of Nova Scotia, Cape Sable.

ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse) are currently just fourteen nautical miles off the dangerous Cape Sable, with Brunel (Matt Humphries) and movistar (Bouwe Bekking) close on their tail. Decision time cannot be far away for these teams as they close in on land, but they are currently in slightly less breeze to the rest of the fleet, sailing at a solid eight knots upwind.

The upwind slog hasn’t been easy for any of the teams, with the yachts jumping and slamming around, making life onboard very difficult. Added to these conditions many yachts have been having problems with catching fish on their appendages. In many cases the crew have to completely stop the yacht to back down off the creatures. Paul Cayard yesterday commented, “We got a second fish of some kind stuck on the keel early Friday morning so we had to back down again to clear the fish. We are getting pretty good at catching fish with smooth, blunt, instruments.”

On the race track Brasil 1 is fighting off The Black Pearl as the Pirates gained two nautical miles on them in the past six hours but ABN AMRO ONE in the lead has pulled out 3 nautical miles on the fleet. Will Black Betty (ABN AMRO ONE) carry on extending on the fleet in these upwind conditions or will Sanderson take it easy until the breeze is best for Betty to pick up her skirts and fly?

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