There are no ambulances waiting trackside in the Volvo Ocean Race but help is at hand in the form of in-depth advice around the clock from specialist MDs. Cybermedicine has come to the Volvo Ocean Race.

The first line of communication Communication #Communication would be the telephone and e-mail, but the same cameras that are placed on every yacht to bring back pictures of the racing can also be used by land-based experts to help those on board treat injuries or illnesses. The conditions may be far removed from the stability of a hospital, but the additional visual link through what is effectively a special web site could provide vital additional guidance.

The whole approach goes back to the formation of an international team, which has set up a medical support system for the race. They are led by D^r. Tim Spalding, a British orthopaedic surgeon based in Coventry, England. They are joined in Sweden by Robert Sinclair, a consultant anaesthetist, and Mark Thomson, a general practitioner who is also an experienced ocean racer. In Germany, Meinholf Goertzen is an orthopaedic and sports surgeon and completing the team from Finland is physiotherapist Timo Malinen.

Each boat carries a specially prepared medical kit. It contains everything from a pocket mouth-to-mouth resuscitator to bandages and splints, analgesics and antibiotics, eye damage treatments, drugs, and saline drips. At least three members of every crew have also been trained to use sutures, staples and glue in the treatment of wounds. They have a basic knowledge of dentistry and are also concerned with preventative medicine.

The crews are also vulnerable to a variety of illnesses caused by the heat, cold or humidity, all of which are made worse by the constant contact with salt water and the conditions on board. But, while treatment has to be immediate and effective, the boat will also, except in a case of extreme emergency, keep on racing, the crew working four-hour shifts around the clock for up to 30 days at a time.

On the racecourse, all the yachts have passed the high-pressure ridge that blocked the way to the northerly winds yesterday. Illbruck had the best passage and immediately doubled her lead over second placed Tyco and third placed ASSA ABLOY. SEB in the south climbed back to fourth place and didn’t gain as much as they had hoped for.

SEB‚s skipper Gurra Krantz wrote : "We have been waiting for a bigger return on our investment in the risk of going more to the south. It seems like we will get a few miles here and there but no real break against the leading pack. Illbruck, Tyco and ASSA ABLOY managed to get through the ridge very comfortably. News Corp, Amer Sports One and especially djuice suffered a lot more. I guess it was a timing thing again."

Roger Nilson from Amer Sports One has foreseen the developing situation, saying : "The leaders might have gotten this breeze hours before us, and that means game over, no way we can catch them back up, because they keep sailing into more pressure all the time."

The last stretch into La Rochelle will not offer lots of opportunities to overtake a boat in front but the question still left open is about SEB’s southerly position. Will it pay, have no effect, or cost them ?

Early indications look like the northern side of the race course will be favoured, but at over 100 miles to the south of the leaders, SEB skipper Gurra Krantz thinks he will have more wind for the final push. "Approaching La Rochelle, we will have more breeze here in the south but at the same time the boats to the north will have better wind angle. Which one will be the winning factor ? I do not know, but I am sure we will find out."

The battle between News Corp and Amer Sports One looks set to be a hot one, with the prospect of a match race all the way to the finish tape. Young ’race veteran’ Matt Humphries thinks it is going to be a tense fight to the finish.

"We are locked into what is shaping up as a 650 mile match race to the finish. The boat in question is Amer Sports One, whom we had a show down with going up the Chesapeake during the last leg. Dalton’s team currently is 3.5 nautical miles to leeward, abeam of us. Onboard we all know what we must do to beat them and are focussed on doing so. Presently we are sailing between code 0s and jibs as the breeze is 14 knots, on the cross over, between the two sails. Every few minutes we record Record #sailingrecord their bearing and distance, making sure we stay on the correct sail." The keen rivalry between the two boats will make this particular tussle a very interesting one to watch over the next 72 hours.