Overnight, the elastic cord connecting race leader, Bernard Stamm, and Kojiro Shiraishi in second position has hardly moved. Stamm – the leader – took Cheminées Poujoulat west of Madeira at around midnight, leaving the Portuguese archipelago to port, while at 0530 GMT, Koji was still 210 miles from the islands with Spirit of Yukoh trailing the Swiss Open 60 by 236 miles.
Off the western coast of Spain, Mike Golding and Alex Thomson rounded Cape Finisterre in the late evening yesterday and have unstuck their yachts from the continental shelf. Golding and Ecover are ahead and furthest offshore, heading south-west 70 miles from the coast, with Thomson and Hugo Boss 30 miles further in towards the Spanish coast, just 34 miles off Golding’s port quarter.
Within the next two hours, Pakea, the Open 60 of Unai Basurko, and Graham Dalton’s Open 50, A Southern Man – AGD, will leave Bilbao. In La Coruna, 240 miles west along Spain’s northern coast, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston will be watching the clock and continuing repairs on SAGA Insurance, waiting for his 48 hour, in-port penalty to expire at 14:55 GMT today.

Positions
1 Cheminees Poujoulat Bernard Stamm 32° 22.3497 N/018° 14.2066 W- 12.2kts of boat speed 10,277 miles to finish
2 Spirit of Yukoh Kojiro Shiraishi 35° 49.9057 N/015° W 36.6767 – 12.8kts of boat speed 236 miles to leader
3 Ecover Mike Golding 42° 01.8296 N/010° 25.6916 W – 10.2kts of boat speed 671 miles to leader
4 Hugo Boss Alex Thomson 42° 28.4179 N/009° 53.4861 W – 10.6kts 705 miles to the leader

Competitor update

• Unai Basurko (Pakea) will restart racing this morning
• Graham Dalton (A Southern Man – AGD) will start racing this morning
• Sir Robin Knox-Johnston (SAGA Insurance) will restart racing this afternoon