Final straight

For the 14 competitors waiting to start the Around Alone with Thursday's preview

Usually at the start of a singlehanded round the world race there is a strong sense of panic as urgent 11th hour problems throw themselves in the way of campaigns and must be resolved. Strangely here at the Newport Shipyard in Newport, Rhode Island, there seems to be little sense of this among the 13 competitors preparing to get underway tomorrow on the prologue to Around Alone. This non-scoring leg is due to departure Newport at 1600 EST tomorrow and will take the boats south west to New York where they will ready themselves for the start proper at midday EST on Sunday.

Among the campaigns there seems to be a sense of calm. Stores for the short, non-scored, fully-crewed sprint south to New York are on board. Divers are in the water scrubbing bottoms. Extraneous gear is on the dock ready to be loaded into containers to go the next port or be left in storage for when the race returns here next spring. There are of course still the issue of comms - will the Inmarsat C position polling work? - and other potential teething problem, which may only be resolved once the race is underway.

The competitors seem to have taken heed of the message sent through today by Vendee Globe organiser Philippe Jeantot, winner of the 1982 and 1986 BOC Challenges - the predecessor to Around Alone - which read: "Preparation, Preparation, Preparation will always be the biggest factor to winning this race. A picture should already be emerging on each competitors chances based on their abilities and preparedness."

On competitors minds at present is the potentially rather major issue called Gustav. This tropical disturbance was promoted to a Tropical Storm on Tuesday and was threatening the Carolinas. Earlier today it was upgraded to a hurricane - the first of the season - and has now intensified and accelerated - bringing with it winds expected to gust up to 95 knots.

Gustav (below) has been tracking up past Rhode Island today and will just leave Nova Scotia to port tonight but its predicted track looks set to steam roller Newfoundland on Saturday. This morning here in Newport it was calm and quiet with a dense fog leaving a slithery sheen on everything. Suddenly at around lunchtime the wind built up and it is now blowing old boots. Although Gustav will be well past by tomorrow's start it will leave over a lumpy residual sea for the passage to New York.

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