Volvo Ocean Race - Leg 1 Day 6

Life settles down on ABN AMRO ONE © Volvo Ocean Race

‘Black Betty’ picks up her skirts

‘Black Betty’ as the crew of ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson) affectionately refer to their black Volvo 70, is romping along. Averaging over one knot faster in the last six hour period, she has extend her lead to a comforting, but not comfortable, 20 nm lead over Brasil 1 (Torben Grael). Her average 24 hour speed is a sparkling 16.8 knots against Brasil 1’s 14.9, leading to a 24-hour run of 402 nm against Brasil 1’s 358.

The leading four are now 274 nm north of the Cape Verde Islands in an east to west split of 55 nm. Neal McDonald’s Ericsson has lost out over night and although she is hanging on to third place, she is now 29 nm adrift, with ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse) on her hip just two nautical miles behind and closing.

Sunergy and Friends (Grant Wharington) are back in the race and trying something different. They clearly will not catch the leaders by following in their wake. The four boats ahead are further south and sailing in different wind conditions. “We’re not rolling the dice on this one,” wrote navigator Campbell Field, “just be aware that we have to be a little more clever.”

History has proven that a 500 or 600 nm deficit is not a disaster when you have around 5,000 nm to go, and this thought is keeping Sunergy and Friends positive and focused.

Position Report: (10:00 GMT)