Upwind, then no wind

150 miles to Gibraltar for the Barcelona World Race leader this morning

Image above courtesy of Expedition Navigation Systems and PredictWind. If you can't see the whole of the table below (this depends which browser you use), scroll down to the bottom of the page.

Positions at 0830GMT

Wow - Virbac Paprec 3 really did go into the beach yesterday morning. At the first report yesterday she was some 40 miles off the Moroccan coast, however, in order to get relief from the brisk northeasterlies, later in the morning she does appear to have sailed to within splitting distance of the shoreline off Marrakesh.

For the Barcelona World Race leader this morning, the wind remains NE-ENEerly or starboard tack-favoured upwind and at the latest sched she has 120 miles before she enters the Strait and then a further 30 miles before she passes Gibraltar. The forecast is still looking torrid once she is through into the Med with headwinds until Saturday followed by no wind due to an area of high pressure over the Balearics on Sunday. In fact circumnavigating the Balearics to the east is looking quite promising at the moment.

Back up to speed, Iker Martinez and Xabi Fernandez on second placed Mapfre have taken 29 miles out of the leaders in the last 24 hours. Some 130 miles NNE of Lanzarote at the latest sched the wind should be more backed into the north according to the forecast, but this doesn't seem to be the case because Mapfre tacked north shortly after the first sched this morning. For them the wind is forecast to veer into the south tomorrow morning but with the pressure dropping off distinctly.

Third placed Renault meanwhile still has 1265 miles to reach Gibraltar. Her course over last night was much like rounding a roundabout as she passed through the western tip of the ridge and once into the building southwesterlies to the north has been able to turn her bows east, although not quite able to lay Gibraltar. Behind Estrella Damm is following a similar strategy while fifth placed Neutrogena is taking a more easterly track north as the high is set to receed east enabling her to cut the corner. Neutrogena's easterly route is also because by tomorrow a new area of high pressure is forecast to develop in the central north Atlantic (to their west) and in staying east Neutrogena should avoid its clutches. Getting northing in early will prove beneficial to this group for by the weekend the high to their west is set up again and this group will find themselves hammering into northwesterlies, although with a passage to Gib primarily on port tack.

Behind Dee Caffari and Anna Corbella on GAES are still heading north across the northeasterly trades, approaching the latitude of the Cape Verdes, while Hugo Boss is coming up to the latitude of Salvador, Brazil, reaching north in light easterlies. However making the best speed in the fleet at the moment is, erm, the freshly re-rigged Central Lechera Asturiana that has just departed Wellington. While Virbac Paprec 3 is 659 miles from the finish line, Juan Merediz and Fran Palacio still have 10,795 miles ahead of them to sail.