The North Atlantic has been throwing headwinds at the Volvo Ocean Race fleet since the teams left New York last week, but finally, the majority of the fleet has now found the reaching conditions they have been waiting for. Paul Cayard reported early this morning, a fairly smooth sea with a masthead spinnaker set on The Black Pearl.

Unfortunately, for movistar (Bouwe Bekking), the outlook is not so bright. “We will be running dead downwind for the next two days, meaning a bad angle, while the others have a reach and are sailing more or less on course to the Lizard,” wrote Bouwe Bekking early this morning. From their position up in the north, movistar is now 222 miles behind ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson) who leads the fleet from their southerly position.

Worse of all for movistar, there is another ridge building in their path, which will only affect the Spanish boat. “I’m spending heaps of time with Capey (Andrew Cape – navigator) in the navstation and looking at all the options, but we missed the train and need Concorde back on duty – with us onboard – if we want to catch up,” said Bekking.

The reaching conditions are perfect for the Dutch boat and she is streaming away at 17.6 knots, with Ericsson (Neal McDonald) still pushing hard, but two knots slower in speed, in second place. “ABN AMRO ONE has sailed a very smart leg so far,” says Paul Cayard from Pirates of the Caribbean in fourth place. “I always say it doesn’t matter where they go, but this time they definitely figured out the weather better than the rest of us,” he adds.

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