A few words from the leading skippers late morning… Loick Peyron told the Race Office from on board Belgacom : "It’s been hard work right from the start. We’ve been through all the sail configurations, and have been dealing with a small autopilot problem." Franck Cammas on Groupama echoed : "We’ve been on deck working all night, whilst the whole fleet is in the same weather system the gaps in mileage are not important right now." Italian skipper Giovanni Soldini on board TIM is in the thick of it : "We had a great night battling against Belgacom and Géant, and are exhausted already ! We’re aiming to stay on the direct route for now, there’s 25 knots of wind from the south east where we are…"

Good news also for Gautier and MacArthur on Foncia, who recovered several positions over night to get themselves into 3rd place this morning and are hovering in the top ten, not looking great on distance to finish because the Anglo-French duo is currently out to the west of the rhumb line, but have 7 other trimarans well in their wake with the leading trimarans all on the inside of their track. Small fluctuations to the east and west in the Southerly breeze on these respective sides of the race course during today will be important for the fleet to get more southing in their route and be able to come hard off the wind for more boatspeed towards their goal, some 3,900 miles down the track.

Sodebo (Coville/Vincent) took off again at 7pm French time last night after a 1 hour 30 minute pit stop in Roscoff to repair their broken starboard foil Foil #foil  : "We hit a UFO in a wave which broke the foil Foil #foil ," Thomas Coville reported in this morning. "We’ve lost 2 and a half hours of racing, we’re going to have our work cut out to get back in the race and I just find it incredible the amount of dangerous objects that must be floating around in the sea." By 1300GMT they were already ahead of Sopra Group (Monnet/L. Bourgnon) and were 49 miles from the front.

Banque Covefi (S. & Y. Ravussin) left Cherbourg at midday, after suffering a damaged mainsail track and ripped main sail, which caused them to make a stop overnight.

• MULTIHULL OPEN 50

The 50ft multihull Mollymawk skippered by British duo Ross Hobson and Andi Newman have made a small technical stop in Brest Brest #brest to fix a problem with their Standard C communication Communication #Communication equipment (obligatory to have working for the race). They set off again at midday.

• MONOHULL OPEN 60’s

The 14 Open 60’s in the Transat Jacques Vabre Transat Jacques Vabre #TJV2015 are on their 5th day of racing, to the NE of the Canary Islands off the Portugese coast. Despite another rough uncomfortable night on the race course, the winds are changing and so are the rankings. As the last cold front passes through the fleet, leading boat Ecover (Golding/Thompson GBR) has now dived South on starboard tack, but staying to the west of rivals Virbac (Dick/Abiven FRA) as Mike Golding explained : "We’re quite happy where we are, but Virbac is obviously a fast boat and a very strong contender. We want to be in their west to get the new winds and better sailing conditions first on the other side of the front. Then the breeze will slowly ease and that begins our long run to the trade winds."

Now with a 90 mile deficit in terms of distance to finish, it is PRB (Riou/Beyou) in the third spot for the first time, sneaking past Sill (Jourdain/Thomson FRA-GBR) because they are on the inside track to the west of the rhumb line. "We’re being patient, waiting for our time to make any risky moves on the new boats, as they are really more than a jump away, so when the downwind breeze arrives we’ll see what their performance is like and what we can do to catch them," said Vincent Riou from PRB.

Patience reigns on board Sill as well, now 4th but making a significant westerly gain on the leaders if not to the finish. Alex Thomson talked through their strategy : "We’re expecting a few days of consistent North Westerly winds to hit us very shortly, which is why we are heading to the West as Mike dives South. The front is big here with 35 knots still on the nose but we’re expecting Ecover to get more confused winds off the system from his position as the low moves North." Still in 5th place, Team Cowes skippers Moloney and Davies are 136m back from the leader and in a more Easterly position, but according to Sam, things are going to plan : "It’s been a hard race for all of us, and Mike is the king of going upwind so we’ll allow him this lead so far. We’re pushing as hard as we can and are happy to be east as it may not look great now but after the transition from upwind to reaching, in a couple of days we should be in a stronger position." One question is clear - will these two leading new generation monohulls perform as well downwind as they have been upwind ?

• MONOHULL OPEN 50’s

Conrad Humphreys and Paul Larsen on Hellomoto are back up to within 20 miles of race leaders Storagetek (Guillemot/Salnelle) and are well positioned to the west of the rhumb line and their rival off Cape Finisterre.

• WEATHER FORECAST

Today : Monohulls : Those furthest to the West should benefit from a rapid wind shift to the West in the morning. This shift will be at around 20 W, and happen more gradually for the boats over in the East of the course, but then shift back to the SW at this longitude at the end of the day. The wind will ease to 15 - 25 knots in general. You must be over to the West to keep the NW breeze…

Multihulls : The southerly flux will reach 30 - 40 knots today and the waves to 6 - 8 metres in height at 15 W longitude. In the east the wind will be slightly more from the South East, and in the west it will be more South West. During tonight between 15 and 20 W longitude, the fleet will fall into a transition zone between the currently southerly breeze and then more irregular north westerly winds due to the high pressure system sitting over France

Friday : Monohulls will have reached a 20 -30 knot NW breeze, and can head directly towards Brazil at high speed. The 10 - 15 knot NE trades are not far down the track. The multihulls will have left behind them the transition zone between the low and high pressure systems and be sailing in a 10 - 20 knot NW breeze.

Saturday : The leading monohulls will enter the NE trades, but those behind may get caught in Southerly winds generated from a final low pressure system circulating at 38 N parallel. The Multihulls will not escape this last depression and will face the Southerly winds yet again. So their best bet is to go looking for the NW breeze and then again be soon on the trade winds highway.

• POSITIONS at 13:00 hrs GMT 06/11/03

MULTIHULL OPEN 60
 Pos. / Boat / Name / Latitude / Longitude / Speed / Hdg / DTF / DFL
 1 BELGACOM 45 01.56’ N 8 24.08’ W 20.5 217 3869M
 2 GROUPAMA 45 30.48’ N 8 58.96’ W 18.9 219 3881.5M 12.4M
 3 TIM 45 40.28’ N 9 14.48’ W 16.6 222 3884.6M 15.5M
 4 BONDUELLE 46 25.80’ N 8 49.32’ W 18.5 (10:30) 3891.4M 22.4M
 5 GEANT 45 45.96’ N 8 38.28’ W 18.3 203 06/11/03 (12.15) 3893.1M 24M

MONOHULL OPEN 60
 Pos. / Boat / Name / Latitude / Longitude / Speed / Hdg / DTF / DFL
 1 ECOVER 38 03.80’ N 18 42.60’ W 12.9 177 3290.9M 
 2 VIRBAC 38 01.32’ N 17 30.24’ W 10.1 242 3310.2M 19.3M
 3 PRB 39 15.36’ N 17 05.52’ W 10.1 243 3382.1M 91.1M
 4 SILL 40 09.18’ N 19 35.58’ W 9.7 269 (11:00) 3388.2M 97.3M
 5 TEAM COWES 39 41.00’ N 16 06.28’ W 9.7 237 3427.2M 136.2M 

OPEN 50 MULTIHULL
 1 MOLLYMAWK 48 23.60’ N 4 25.80’ W 0.0 000 4170.5M

OPEN 50 MONOHULLS 
 1 STORAGETEK 42 24.88’ N 11 39.04’ W 8.6 222 3663M
 2 HELLOMOTO 43 04.60’ N 12 23.20’ W 7.4 241 3683.3M 20.2M

 Mike Golding (Ecover) : "Next 12 hours, we’ll get headers and come round in front, eventually we’ll need to tack on starboard, which will take us south. The breeze will slowly ease and that begins our long run to the trade winds. It has been a battle to get to trade winds, we’re not so far away now, just 1 more big manoeuvre and we should be on our way."

 Alex Thomson (Sill) : "We’re going through the final wall of 30 knot headwinds and soon we’ll pop out in front with light westerlies, but this will lead us to the 20 knot NW breeze shortly. We’re working hard all the time, putting reefs in and out, changing headsails, so we only put our oilskins round our ankles when it’s time to jump into the bunk and we’re constantly sopping wet. I did manage to dry my socks and boots by the engine. Bilou is now looking like a wild man of the sea - much more so than me !"

 Sam Davies (Team Cowes) : "It reminds me of the Mini Transat, permanently in survival suits, doing everything as fast as possible, hand steering all the time and sleeping on the floor on top of sails. Nick and I are working well together, for me it’s such a fresh challenge to be out racing across an ocean on these boats against some top skippers."

  Mary Ambler