Quick, quick, slow

The Volvo Ocean Race fleet has to negotiate just one more area of light winds before they reach the north east trade winds.

Following damage to her mainsail headboard car, SEB, anchored off the small Island of Porto Santo, 20 miles north east of Madeira yesterday morning, to collect vital spare parts.

The logistical challenge to deliver the right parts to the yacht was simply enormous. "We have had eight to ten guys working on this for the last 48 hours," said Pelle Norberg, SEB syndicate head.

From the yacht, skipper Gunnar Krantz explained the way the team rallied to support them "Scott McAllister, our shore manager, was woken up at three o'clock in the morning. From his bed in Perth he communicated with Sweden, Madeira, the UK and the boat.
He got hold of a boat in Madeira, he communicated with our office in Stockholm, called our shore team member, Jonas Nilsson in Gothenburg and got him to pick up equipment and jump on a plane to Madeira the next morning. A powerboat was waiting and late at night we had a rendezvous close to the island of Porto Santo. We anchored within one mile of land and the job's done."

At the front of the fleet, between 04.00 and 10.00 GMT today, Tyco pulled away from her next rival, Assa Abloy, by 13 miles. Kevin Shoebridge's team have maintained their lead all day. This evening, the yachts are passing the Canary Islands to port and sailing at 11knots in 13 knots of breeze with the wind on their quarter.

However, while the Tyco crew may have navigated their blue and white Farr designed yacht into the first significant lead in days, they are acutely aware their lead is hanging on a thread, with the minefield of clouds above them deciding their fate. "We are in the land of clouds and if you get on the wrong side or caught up in one then it can lose you miles," reported watch captain Tim Powell earlier today.

Behind Tyco, a concentrated battle, spread over 4 miles, between Assa Abloy, Amer Sports One, illbruck and Team News Corp continues for second to fifth, with yachts gaining and losing like snakes and ladders.

Grant Dalton on Amer Sports One explained the spread of the fleet. "We caught up Assa Abloy and illbruck in what appears to have been a bad cloud for them. It got us and News Corp as well but not to the same extent, with Tyco getting the best of it and stretching on everyone. Clouds are funny things though, they have a habit of evening out over the course of a race, so when you are handed a gift from a cloud you take it as you know that the next one just may have your name written all over it," said Dalton.

In the navigation station, the afterguard spend hours trying to plot the most effective route through the cloud induced wind patches surrounding them. At their disposal they have live information gleamed from Internet access as well as the experienced eyes of the crew on deck.

"The internet weather is really important. That really helps with the long term game plan but the short term game plan is keeping your head out of the boat, [ensure the crew are] looking up the track, looking at the clouds trying to predict what the wind is going to do and wriggle your way around the clouds as efficiently a possible," explained illbruck skipper John Kostecki.

From Team News Corp in fifth, skipper Jez Fanstone said in a radio interview today, "Miles are very hard to gain and very easy to lose. We took a slightly different course from the rest of the fleet at the beginning. We were a little bit behind but we felt confident that it would pay off and here we are today sitting within striking distance of second place. We have a little plan for the next few days and we'll see how that comes together. The biggest problem we are going to encounter within the next week is the heat and humidity," added Jez.

Amer Sports Too, djuice and SEB are still lagging behind but remain focused and resilient as the leg is still far from lost or won. "We are pushing the boat as much as possible under a code 0 upwind. Every gram is stacked to weather," reported djuice helmsman Stig Westergaard late last night.

"The position reports are not always nice reading. It is somewhat frustrating to see the leaders enlarge their gain just by being further into the wind. Hopefully they will park in the ridge before us. The atmosphere is great though. Everybody is chipping in the best they can," added Stig.

Report from Mark Rudiger on Assa Abloy ... Page Two
Report from Grant Dalton on Amer Sports One ... Page Three
Position report... Page Four