Racing south has paid off handsomely for ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson), Pirates of the Caribben (Paul Cayard) and ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse). Bouwe Bekking, who took movistar further north is hurting, trying to control the damage, but sailing in less pressure. “Angry with myself, yes. I am normally the guy who says bake only small cookies and you will be fine. Should have stuck a little closer to the fleet,” he wrote this morning.

Disaster was averted for the Spanish boat yesterday when they almost lost one of their canards (one of the two boards that that this boat has to prevent her from sliding sideways) through the bottom of the boat. A line shot through the jammer, but luckily the board stayed within the hull and only the top was damaged and has already been repaired by Pepe Ribes. In spite of some bad position reports and the incident with the canard, the crew was happy to receive the information that watch leader, Stu Bannatyne, is a father of a baby girl.

The fleet is now separated north south by 49 nautical miles. Movistar is approximately one degree further north, while ABN AMRO ONE is the most southerly boat and 29 miles north south separate her from stable mate ABN AMRO TWO with Pirates of the Caribbean sandwiched between them.

After the drama of yesterday, when they had a small fire onboard and got a spinnaker entwined around their rudders, ING Real Estate Brunel (Grant Wharington) is now five miles north of movistar.

Next on the agenda will be icebergs and the race office has received notification from Polar View of large icebergs located near 49S 35E. This notice was passed onto the crews. Data from a satellite with radar scanning the southern ocean identified two icebergs in this area – probably one very large berg which has split in two. There will almost certainly be smaller icebergs and growlers too small for the radar to pick up in close proximity.