Spirits rising after Horn cleared

by Lizzie Green on 4 Mar 2006 After the battering the fleet had as it rounded Cape Horn yesterday, the lighter winds that the crews are now have as they sail around the southern side of the Falkland Islands is more than welcome. Spirits are rising and grins are back on the faces of the tired crews.

Hatches, which were once closed to prevent an unwelcome torrent of water pouring into the boat, have been opened and the boats are beginning to dry out. The chance of sleep without the boat shaking and bouncing as the crews cling to their bunks is now possible and lying huddled on the floor in a survival suit is no longer necessary as the urgency to get everyone up on deck immediately has become less of a reality.

But this is no time to rest on their laurels, the battle for supremacy in the North Atlantic is on and while the boats are storm battered, and bent, the crews are gathering their strength to take on each other again in the last third of this leg to Rio de Janeiro.

Tonight the fleet is spread over 55 nautical miles from first to fifth place, and everyone has made gains on ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson), who leads the field. His margin is just 17 miles from Pirates of the Caribbean (Paul Cayard), which is averaging the slowest speed in the fleet. Ericsson Racing Team (Neal McDonald) and ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse) in the south both have better breeze and consequently better speed, sailing three knots faster than Sanderson and his team.

Movistar has almost reached Ushuaia. She has just 30 miles to motor before reaching the safe haven of the harbour and the welcome sight of her shore team standing on the dockside, but the winds of up to 30 knots are hampering her progress.

LEG FOUR DAY 13, 03.02.06, 1000 GMT POSITION REPORT
YACHT DTF SMG 24 Hour Run 24 Hour Speed DTL DTLC SGPTS PLPTS PTLPTS ETA POP POSITION OVERALL
1 ABN1 01868 15.1 351 14.6 00000 +00000 3.5 7.0 10.5 09/03/06 19:__:__ 49.0 1
2 POTC 01885 14.8 350 14.6 00017 +00000 3 6.0 9.0 09/03/06 20:__:__ 30.5 3
3 BRA1 01895 15.4 350 14.6 00027 +00007 2.5 5.0 7.5 09/03/06 21:__:__ 27.5 5
4 ABN2 01898 18.1 434 18.1 00030 +00018 2 4.0 6.0 09/03/06 22:__:__ 34.0 2
5 ERIC 01923 18.1 413 17.2 00055 +00012 1.5 3.0 4.5 09/03/06 23:__:__ 21.0 6
6 MOVI 02329 05.5 100 04.2 00461 -00177 1 2.0 3.0 13/03/06 14:__:__ 28.0 4

ABN1 ABN AMRO ONE
ABN2 ABN AMRO TWO
BRA1 Brasil 1
ERIC Ericsson Racing Team
MOVI movistar
POTC Pirates of the Caribbean

DTF: distance to finish, SMG: Speed made good, DTL: distance to leader,
DTLC: distance to leader change; the difference between the distance from the boat to the leader taken at the time of the last six hour poll, and the distance from the boat to the leader at the previous poll

SGPTS: points scored at scoring gates on this leg to date
PLPTS: projected leg points
PTLPTS: projected total leg points including actual points from scoring gates
POP: projected overall points including actual points from scoring gates
OVERALL: projected position in race overall if yacht maintains current position