Volvo Ocean Race: "800 litres of water downwind is not fast"

Everything was going well for Charlie Enright's Vestas 11th Hour Racing team until the skipper suddenly heard rushing water in the navigation corner: a hose of the water ballast system had burst. As a result, the water poured into the bilge. The skipper's sarcastic comment: "800 litres of water downwind is not fast... Now we've also sorted out the power deficit." Two crew members scooped the water out of the bilge by hand using two buckets. "It's really hard to drain this whirlpool," joked one crew member. The break has since been repaired. And Vestas continues to lead the fleet of seven Volvo Ocean Race yachts after rounding Porto Santos on the way to the next new course mark set by the race organisers. This additional mark was placed north of Porto Santo to ensure that the fleet does not reach the finish harbour of Lisbon until Saturday afternoon.

Two days before the planned finish, Vestas 11th Hour Racing still had a twelve nautical mile lead on Thursday morning over the Spaniards on "Mapfre", who have come on strongly in recent days with better speed, and a 13.3 nautical mile lead over the equally fast "AkzoNobel" with comeback skipper Simeon Tienpont, who has so far kept his last-minute crew, completed with substitutes, impressively well in the race.

From last place on this leg, co-favourite "Dongfeng" with French skipper Charles Caudrelier has now fought its way up to fourth place. On Thursday morning, however, "Dongfeng" was still 22.9 nautical miles behind the leaders. The three boats at the back of the pack, including Bouwe Bekking's Team Brunel, have been struggling since the penalty shortly after the start of the first leg from Alicante to Lisbon and have so far struggled in vain to catch up with the top boats. On Thursday morning, Brunel and Dee Caffari's Team Turn the Tide on Plastic were separated by just 0.7 nautical miles at the back of the field.

Brunel's "Golden Boy" Peter Burling, Olympic champion and America's Cup winner, reported from on board: "The last two nights were definitely full of contrasts. The night before last we had 30 knots of wind all over the water. Last night we were travelling at two or three knots and just fighting for full sails." The ever-inquisitive Kiwi tried to make the most of the awkward position, explaining, "It's interesting for us in this group of four boats chasing the leaders. They're quite far away, but we're learning a lot sailing so close to the other boats over such a long period of time." However, Burling, who is used to winning, will not be happy with his current penultimate place in the fleet.