Leg 1 of the Volvo Ocean Race is now entering the home straight, as the miles tick down and the leading bunch get ever closer to the finish line just beneath Table Mountain. The weather looks set to see the boats in with a favourable wind right up to the coast, though there are ominously few speed feathers on the wind arrows close to the continent of Africa.

It is in the light winds that the two ABN AMRO boats are most vulnerable. On board Brasil 1 Torben Grael and his navigator Adrienne Cahalan must be plotting and planning to see how their team of Olympic and World Champions can maximise the light weather abilities of their Farr-designed boat. If they possibly can, they will cut the deficit and work at getting to the front, right up to the final moment of the leg.

The poll at 1600GMT shows a 240 mile advantage to ABN AMRO ONE, but everyone in yacht racing knows that the wind can be notoriously fickle right up to the end. Such is the speed of the Volvo Open 70 that it is conceivable that Brasil 1 could close the gap. If the notorious wind hole in the shadow of Table Mountain is there and any boat falls into it, it has been known that a boat well behind can sail round the stalled yacht and snatch the position.

If there are lighter winds they will work in favour of Ericsson. Neal McDonald and his team are still sailing at over 13 knots with their canting keel no longer canting, but are making ground over Sunergy and Friends regardless. Bringing up the rear, Sunergy and Friends has started that long slow turn to port, but is still sailing in light winds and is making just over 11 knots.

SPANISH DECISION

Spanish team movistar has been beavering away at the repairs on their boat in Portimaõ, Portugal, with their shore team being joined by the Spanish America’s Cup team’s experts in composites. With the King of Spain and just about the whole population of Spain behind them, Bouwe Bekking’s team had hoped to get their black boat back into sailing trim and complete the leg, but time has beaten them and they have announced their retirement from the leg. Now the boat is being packed up and put on a ship to Cape Town to arrive, after two weeks at sea, before the In Port race on Boxing Day, 26 December

Pedro Campos, manager of the movistar team, has been very open and communicative about the damage to the boat in order that the skippers of the other similar boats could check their structure to help prevent similar problems. In a press conference this afternoon, Pedro praised the work done by the shore team and the boat builders from Desafio Espanol 2007 in putting the boat to rights. Concerning the decision to ship the yacht to Cape Town, Pedro commented, “We calculated all the pros and cons of the options available. The final decision was hard to take, but we have decided to ship movistar rather than sail her to Cape Town. We go to Cape Town on 4 December and will continue training. There are a lot of points still to get, the race is long and all the team know that there is still the possibility to reach the top.”

Skipper Bouwe Bekking, “We have fixed the boat in record time. I feel really confident in the repairs and the boat is in a perfect state.”

OUT ON THE OCEAN

Out on the ocean, leading skipper Mike Sanderson is looking forward towards – not to, maritime superstition applies even on state of the art boats – the finish in Cape Town. `We managed to have a really smooth transition through the front that had been chasing us for the last couple of days, and with which we had been traveling and which gave us the good weather for the 24 hour run.

“As you pass through a front like this, they can be very violent, but we were expecting a big shift and an increase, so for the couple of hours beforehand we had the guys all in their gear, ready to go. Sure enough the big dark cloud with a very firm bottom edge was approaching us from the right side, we managed to change the sail stack and gybe the gennaker and staysail about a minute before we were hit with 30 knots with all the big gear up. This would have been fine for a while, except with the wind shift, we were now charging at 25 knots 30 degrees below course.

“The guys did a great job in getting the gennaker down, we un-rolled our reacher and we were off. Awesome!

“To get through something like that and never drop below 18 knots of boat speed was very cool. Then it is a matter of just leaving a couple of guys on deck and everyone else below to re-stack the boat. No fun.

“During the night, our distance to go ticked under 1,000 miles. I have a little chuckle every time this happens on a trip; a very good mate of mine and of a few of the guys here, Jeremy Lomas, who is the bowman for Emirates Team NZ, did the race with us in 1998 on Merit Cup. In those days the B&G instruments on deck only read, as far as distance goes, to 999.9. Anyway Jero didn't like the Whitbread much, but to his credit he toughed it out. Anyway he would set the distance to go on deck with about 1900 miles to go, and for a week or more would have to painfully watch as it sat there until there would be this massive cheer when it clicked to 999.8... anyway Jero, for our sake you will be pleased to know that we now have 888!”

At the other end of the racing fleet, Sunergy and Friends and its navigator Campbell Field are soldiering on, but senses of humour are stretched; “Wednesday again?”

“So little has happened in the last 24 hours that it is not easy to crank up the keyboard and wax lyrical about the exciting life on board the good ship Sunergy & Friends.

“We have the same sails up, the same wind speed, same wind direction, same food, same conversations, same bad jokes from the same people, same, same, same, same, same, same. The only change really is the temperature has dropped very slightly to a more liveable level. This means a bit of rediscovery of clothing that we are digging out of our kit bags, that we swear were put away dry somewhere far north of here, but somehow don't seem to be dry any more.

“I can see a game of hide and seek coming up for those less organized, ‘Who stole my socks’ from some, while digging through the bilges and emptying every bag available on the boat. Sure, it was me; I've kept your three week old, sticky, sweaty, smelly socks hidden under my pillow. Right.

“Also very exciting is that the barometer is very slowly rising as we approach the 'I-might-move-back-to-St-Helena-soon-but-will-hang-around-to-spook-you-for-a-while-first’ high. Actually more anxious than excited is the emotion here.

“We even have a similar distance to the finish as we are heading in a southerly direction in order to skirt around the high and hook into the leading edge of a cold front for a ride home.

“Possibly the most exciting thing for us in the very near past is that we discovered we weren't out of sugar after all, so coffee is starting to taste good again. I've not yet figured out yet why we get about 50 sachets of coffee every day, and what appears to be about five sachets of sugar. Pop in for a coffee when we get to Cape Town, we've got plenty. Bring your own milk and sugar though.

“Oh, the exciting lives we lead.

“So, not a lot to report. Sorry about that.”

“Tomorrow though, will be Hump Day. I hope to have something better for you all then.

“Regards, Campbell Field – navigator”

Source: Volvo Ocean Race Media