5 West match race

Hugo Boss and Neutrogena locked in contention in the Barcelona World Race

A slow night dogged by a zone of high pressure, the breeze at times as slack as just two or three knots , now sees stablemates Hugo Boss and Neutrogena virtually alongside each other - just one mile apart. After a clear night, well lit by the full moon, the two IMOCA 60s continue to be remain side by side, despite gybing south at around 1.30am this morning.

The two frontrunners gybing this morning has led to a small split as Bernard Stamm and Jean Le Cam on Cheminees Poujoulat and Anna Corbella and Gerard Marin on GAES Centros Auditivos have continued west.

Corbella and Marin on board GAES Centros Auditivos continue to punch above their weight, profiting from their routing to the east, from being 45 miles off the lead to moving up to third place just 8.4 miles behind at the 0900 sched this morning. Corbella reported that the breeze has been so light there has been the chance to work hard on their jobs list and so their IMOCA 60 is back at 100%. Jorge Riechers and Sebastien Audigane on Renault Captur have also regained a few miles.

Sadly as captured by the high, Nandor Fa and Conrad Colman on Spirit of Hungary have made a little progress towards Gibraltar - just 32 miles to their west earlier this morning and the forecast indicates that they will continue to encounter very light westerlies to further hamper their exit from the Mediterranean.

For the leaders, the Canary Islands lie in the middle of their course, so the crews will need to decide whether to follow their routing and pass through the islands or work west, thereby avoiding the substantial lee of the Canaries. The latter choice seems to be the decision taken by Cheminees Poujoulat and GAES Centros Auditivos.

The wind is forecast to remain light through most of today, the ledaers only getting into the Trades around the Canary Islands when a robust, 20 knots maybe even 25, is likely. But the fight at present is to get down to them.