Strong northerly winds of 20 – 25 knots

Speed is up throughout the Volvo Ocean Race fleet on Sunday morning (UTC) as a strong northerly breeze translates into fast sailing angles.

Team Brunel has retaken the lead on the tracker, primarily by virtue of being nearly 20 miles further south compared to MAPFRE and Dongfeng Race Team.

The trailing pair, SHK/Scallywag and team AkzoNoble have nearly halved their deficit to the leaders over the past 24 hours, but remain over 60 miles in arrears.

While it is wet on deck, the temperatures are mild, and these are great mile-making conditions for the Volvo Ocean 65s as Turn the Tide on Plastic skipper, Dee Caffari, in fourth place, writes:
“Last night was all about the transition and the cold front catching up to us. We slowly got lifted and the breeze dropped. We eventually gybed and met 20 knots almost immediately. A sail change and some deck organisation later we are on our way, sending it to Auckland.

“We are sailing in 30 knots for the next 8 hours of so before the wind starts to drop. This is a great way to gain some miles after some slow upwind sailing that we have been doing.

“There is water pouring down the deck, everyone is wet, everything is wet inside and out and no one is complaining as we all know this is short lived and we will cover some serious miles while we are at it. And the water is warm, 19 degrees, matching the air temperature.”

This story is from www.volvooceanrace.com