"Bouwe Bekking chews a piece of chewing gum between his teeth. He grips it with his thumb and forefinger and pulls it 30 inches in front of his mouth. Then he eats it again, piece by piece, until it disappears into his unshaven mouth. 'That's us and the rest of the field. One moment you're ahead - and after a while we're all together again,'" writes Team Brunel reporter Stefan Coppers.
Ian Walker, skipper of Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing, is obviously happy with this situation: "We're quite happy because we were behind these guys for a while. It's very nice to be within striking distance and to see how fast we are."
The more easterly course paid off for the leading quartet yesterday. They were the first to be affected by a wind shift from north-northeast to northeast and were thus able to turn northwards towards the finish. Only a few hours later, the others also turned, but lost some ground in the process.
In the current report, the first four teams were separated by only eight nautical miles. Yesterday Dongfeng had apparently lost some ground when the repair of the detached mast track was tackled. The repair appears to have been successful in the late afternoon by gluing the rail in place.
The following teams are already a little behind. Vestas Wind is 38 nautical miles behind, Alvimedica over 43 nautical miles. Team SCA's position did not look good at all. The women were already well over 80 nautical miles behind and in an area with lighter winds.
Sail repair at Team SCA
The next tactical decision will be whether to sail between the islands of Réunion and Mauritius ahead or past their eastern side. And then there's also the tropical storm lurking...
On board with Team Mapfre
Lars Bolle
Chief Editor Digital
