Overnight Vincent Riou (PRB) has taken back the lead from Golding and in the last few hours, sailing almost twice the speed of Golding, has increaded his advantage to 35 miles.

Golding has spent the night coping with wind holes and 30kt gusts. Chatting from the boat this morning Golding said: “I’m definitely not as happy as yesterday, to be honest, it’s a bit of a pig’s ear! The squalls are vicious. I’ve reefed the sail ready for the proper breeze to fill in but after the squalls the wind just dies away and sometimes goes aft. I’m currently (at 1045) in the middle of another squall and trying to muscle it out, but there’s no signs of the Trade Winds yet.. sorry I have to go this is a big one!”

Jean Le Cam, in third, is now 145 miles astern, still out to the east. Le Cam, on the edge of a high pressure system, is wallowing in little wind and has suffered his worst 24 hours of the race so far having covered just 133 miles. However, although he will probably pick up the first of the new winds out east he may well find himself having to track back to the west in line with Golding and Riou.

Sébastien Josse (VMI) who’s sailing with no foresails is having his time cut out trying to fend off the ever-threatening Dominique Wavre (Temenos) who continues to clock up the miles in a favourable westerly flow as he heads up the Argentinian coast.

Jean Pierre Dick (Virbac-Paprec) now round the Horn has been making the most of the strong winds as he heads up the South Atlantic but his priority today is to complete the repairs to his broken boom. He’s hoping to take shelter in the lee of the Falkland Island where conditions should be relatively calm.

Positions at 1000 this morning

1st PRB Vincent Riou 25 58.64′ S 31 32.48′ W

2 Ecover Mike Golding 25 50.80′ S 33 56.12′ W 35.7 miles from leader

3 Bonduelle Jean Le Cam 29 25.00′ S 27 14.32′ W 145.2 miles from leader

4 VMI Sébastien Josse 36 17.08′ S 38 22.16′ W 701.9 miles from leader

5 Temenos Dominique Wavre 37 13.20′ S 39 15.44′ W 769.5 miles from leader

6 Virbac-Paprec Jean-Pierre Dick 53 57.68′ S 62 44.64′ W 2105.5 miles from leader

7 Skandia Nick Moloney 54 49.44′ S 78 05.32′ W 2686.5 miles from leader

8 Arcelor Dunkerque Joé Seeten 53 09.12′ S 93 12.20′ W 3224.3 miles from leader

9 Hellomoto Conrad Humphreys 54 07.20′ S 105 08.70′ W 3579.2 miles from leader

10 Ocean Planet Bruce Schwab 51 13.44′ S 110 04.88′ W 3837.0 miles from leader

11 Max Havelaar / Best Western Benoît Parnaudeau 54 08.20′ S 121 20.64′ W 4125.0 miles from leader

12 ROXY Anne Liardet 51 13.00′ S 151 52.04′ W 5218.6 miles from leader

13 AKENA Vérandas Raphaël Dinelli 50 27.48′ S 161 52.28′ W 5581.1 miles from leader

14 Benefic Karen Leibovici 49 28.20′ S 175 12.68′ W 6061.0 miles from leader