Out into the Atlantic

Stamm and Shiraishi on the wind but with light at the end of the tunnel in the Velux 5 Oceans

Positions at 0532 GMT

Pos	Yacht	Skipper	Latitude	Longitude	Course	Speed
1	Cheminees Poujoulat	Bernard Stamm	41° 40.7958 N	013° 46.2930 W	165°	10.6
2	Spirit of Yokoh	Kojiro Shiraishi	43° 38.0942 N	012° 26.3045 W	281°	9.6
3	Saga	Sir Robin Knox Johnston	43° 54.0592 N	008° 41.3157 W	140°	4
In port	Ecover	Mike Golding	43° 22.0499 N	008° 23.8470 W	000°	0
In port	Hugo Boss	Alex Thompson	43° 33.6855 N	005° 41.9808 W	252°	0
In port	TBC Bursurko	Unai Basurko	43° 20.2793 N	003° 00.9523 W	000°	0

With four of the six boats in port, or heading to port in the case of Sir Robin Knox Johnston, so only Bernard Stamm and Kojiro Shiraishi remain racing in the Velux 5 Oceans at present.

Depending upon how you measure it Stamm the incredible is now 127 miles ahead of Shiraishi, having put roughly 10 miles on him over the last five hours. This is mainly because Stamm has been sailing on a course of 212deg, more or less on course while Shiraishi has been on 265deg, still at the latitude of Cape Finisterre, no doubt attempting to put some sea room between him and "the new Cape Horn".

At present a depression is centred around 500 miles due west of the boats but its centre is forecast to move due east to within 300 miles of them in 12 hours time, eventually veering northeast up towards the English Channel over the course of tomorrow. This will put both Stamm and Shiraishi hard on the wind by mid-morning today and they will take the header and get more westing in. The forecast for Stamm therefore looks peachy - while upwind this morning, the wind will continue to veer causing him to head west taking him towards strong northerly flow on the southwest side of this system. It will then be a case of rocketship Cheminees Poujoulat - thank you very much, good night - as his Open 60 races south on course at 20+ knots starting this evening.... The outcome should be much the same for Shiraishi, if a little delayed compared to Stamm.

The good news is that the latest forecast indicates the Azores high attempting to put in an appearance (it is way south at the moment due to the number of depressions racing across the Atlantic to its north). This means that the boats currently in port should get a fast run down the west coast of Spain tomorrow, although Alex Thomson who is leaving Gijon tonight will have a relatively unpleasant first night at sea.

Thomson is due to set sail again tonight, Golding tomorrow afternoon.