The Ocean Race Leg 2 Day 2: Slowly sliding south
by The Ocean Race 26 Jan 13:36 GMT
26 January 2023
25 January 2023, The Ocean Race, Start of Leg 2 in Cabo Verde © Anne Beaugé / Biotherm
It's been a tense first night as the IMOCA fleet has sailed south, away from Mindelo and towards the uncertainty of the Doldrums.
It was an exciting start, despite the light conditions, with close quarters action as the fleet leaves Cabo Verde en route to Cape Town.
Watch the start from on board Team Holcim-PRB:
Paul Meilhat's Biotherm is in the lead on Thursday morning, and along with Team Holcim-PRB and 11th Hour Racing Team, is gybing west away from Sao Filipe.
Further behind, Team Malizia is chasing hard, while GUYOT environnement - Team Europe, has fallen slightly further back, after leading the fleet around the starting race course.
"This is VMG (velocity made good) racing downwind between the islands," said Paul Meilhat heading into the night. "We made the choice to use the spinnaker off the start and it's worked well because we are in front of the others."
Follow the action on board in our "From the boats" section.
The latest positions are in the Race Tracker.
Leg two rankings at 1100 UTC - 26 January 2023:
1. Biotherm, distance to finish, 4672.4 miles
2. Team Holcim-PRB, distance to leader, 1.4 miles
3. 11th Hour Racing Team, distance to leader, 5.3 miles
4. Team Malizia, distance to leader, 9.6 miles
5. GUYOT environnement - Team Europe, distance to leader, 27.6 miles