The big winner this weekend is Armel Le Cléac’h (Brit Air) who appears to have left the Doldrums behind him without having been slowed down.  In so doing, he has closed the gap by 200 miles to Roland Jourdain (Veolia Environnement), although the latter now seems to be taking advantage of the easterly trade winds off Cape Verde to avoid losing miles to Michel Desjoyeaux. 

For the skipper of Foncia, the easterly wind should ease off and veer southerly later today, but these lighter winds are only set to last for a day.  As he makes gains in latitude, Michel Desjoyeaux will be able to slowly come around to set his course for Les Sables d’Olonne. There is a potential sting in the tale as this coming week a series of lows are forecast to hit the Bay of Biscay causing westerly gales. 

Marc Guillemot (Safran) has gradually escaped from the clutches of the thundery zone and is set to pass Salvador de Bahia today now some 65 miles from the coast in a moderate easterly trade wind, while further out to sea, Samantha Davies (Roxy) is also moving along steadily again. 

Davies, 266 miles ahead, is no longer losing miles to Brian Thompson (Bahrain Team Pindar) who spent a two hour period around 2100hrs GMT last night severely slowed – to just 2-3 knots - and may well have had to carry our repairs  Dee Caffari’s repairs to Aviva’s mainsail appear still to be working as she has been averaging 14 knots during the night and has pulled back to within 75 miles of Thompson.

Steve White, GBR, (Toe in the Water) continues his steady 11 knots ascent in upwind conditions, again, and is no longer making ground on eighth placed Arnaud Boissières who was moving well again this morning.

Rich Wilson, USA, (Great American III) is making tidy progress towards Cape Horn. He will need to keep his speeds up to avoid the worst of a depression which is due to hit the Horn on Monday, but with 320 miles to go this morning, the American skipper should be passed before the worst of it arrives. He passed within 30 miles of the spot where he was capsized in a huge storm around Thanksgiving 1990, whilst on a record attempt from San Francisco to Boston.

Making better speeds now, with around 250 miles to the last ice gate, Raphael Dinelli is some 75 miles ahead of Norbert Sedlacek, AUT, (Nauticsport-Kapsch), but just 40 miles separates them NW to SE.