Ian Walker’s Green Dragon team has become the first boat to enter into ‘StealthPlay’, a move that hides its position from the other teams – and us – for 12 hours.

The race organisers introduced the SteathPlay concept as a way to give the skippers and navigators a way to express their creativity allowing a team to make a move without the others knowing what they are doing.

With position reports being issued to the fleet every three hours, there is very little time for a team to make a break from the others.

Green Dragon entered StealthPlay at 0400 and will not re-emerge onto the radar screens of the opposition until 1600 today.

Teams are allowed to make one StealthPlay on each of the long offshore legs.

Meanwhile, out on the race course, Ericsson 4 and PUMA appear to have made the correct choice by sailing around the east of the Canary Islands. They’ve leapt out to a 29 mile lead over the (presumed) third place Ericsson 3.

And how about Delta Lloyd? The last-minute entry is up to fourth place on the leaderboard, also benefitting from better conditions to the East of the Canary Islands.