As promised: Telefónica has turned up the heat. Much to the chagrin of the men from Puma, who are becoming accustomed to losing out in such duels, to bemoaning fate and cursing the wind, which sometimes just doesn't want to blow where they are. "We're sailing along and suddenly there's a spot on the radar as big as Texas," moaned Puma skipper Ken Read. "It's impossible to sail around it, it swallowed us up twice within six hours." In plain language: pitch-black night, pouring rain, hardly any wind. In the next report, they were stunned to realise that the Spaniards, who had chosen the western route through the Solomon Islands, had been rewarded for their patience and had sailed past with a better breeze and full steam downwind. Even though nothing has been decided yet, this loss of position hurts Puma, especially psychologically.
Telefónica's navigator, the sly Andrew Cape, believes that with a gap of around 91 miles to the French leaders at the front, there may still be room for improvement. "Groupama may have turned too early or not yet made it to the new wind." If they want to claim their fourth stage win in a row, however, the Spaniards will have to hurry, as they were the slowest boat in the field at the last position report. Franck Cammas and his team, on the other hand, who had also parked for a while yesterday, are only about 550 miles from the finish in Auckland. You can already smell a bit of the stage win. "We have wind again, it looks better for us," breathed Thomas Coville on Groupama. "We're living in the moment and have to see how it turns out at the end. You're not done until you've crossed the finish line."
From the boats behind, which all had more and rougher winds, Camper hoped to do the same to Telefónica and catch Puma in order to at least secure a podium place at the stage finish back home. At the last position report, the gap to Puma was only 28 miles. Abu Dhabi and Sanya, who are sailing along in 5th and 6th place, can hardly hope to catch up and are endeavouring to minimise the gap.
The first boat is now expected to finish on Saturday Central European Time, putting the boats three days behind schedule, which dictates a short stop in New Zealand.
Battle for position towards the end of the stage
More on the Event page and about the Live stream the YouTube channel.
Current positions and distances in the Tracker.
