As they pass the Cape Verde Islands an electric pace set by the leading duo Virbac-Paprec 3 and Foncia in the brisk NE'ly trade winds sees the two crews gaining more miles on the chasing pack.


Jean-Pierre Dick (FRA) and Loïck Peyron (FRA) are the only crew of the 14 in the Barcelona World Race so far to have broken the 400 mile day, sailing 404.6 miles in the 24 hours to 0400hrs GMT this morning. Virbac-Paprec 3 lead by 40 miles as they pass the latitude of Dakar some 500 miles to the east. Speeds remain high, the skippers always pushing as hard as they dare, steering constantly working regular shifts to maximise speed.

But still the speed kings are Iker and Xabi on what is being dubbed their 69-er. They are the only team in the race to be consistently close to the speeds of the leaders, ironically they match Michel Desjoyeaux and François Gabart  on Foncia to the same 10th of a knot over the morning surf session from 0400hrs – 0900hrs.

Xabi on what is being dubbed their 69-er

The Barcelona World Race fleet is now spread over some 700 miles of the Atlantic, strung out between Hugo Boss which has just passed the Canary Islands and the leaders who are off the Cape Verde Islands this morning.
Leader Virbac-Paprec3 passed Santo Antao, the most NW’ly island of the Cape Verde archipelago, at around 0130hrs GMT, some 43 miles off the west side. And approximately 3 hours later it was second placed Michel Desjoyeaux (FRA) and François Gabart (FRA) on Foncia who passed the same latitude.

One hundred and fifty miles NW of the island third placed Estrella Damm, Alex Pella (ESP) and Pepe Ribes (ESP), have lost around 20 miles to the leaders overnight. The Barcelona duo have been quicker through most of the night than Mirabaud, Dominique Wavre (SUI) and Michèle Paret (FRA) and earned themselves three miles against the couple.

The lateral separation between fifth placed Mapfre, Iker Martinez (ESP) and Xabi Fernandez (ESP), and the most easterly Neutrogena of Boris Herrmann (GER) and Ryan Breymaier (USA) remains a constant 130 miles. The German-American duo have been pushing their 2004 Lombard design, which was optimised before the last Vendée Globe by Juan Yacht Design, have been pushing hard to take full advantage of E’ly position where they appear to have had more wind, sometimes up to five knots on average.
They have lost only three miles to Mapfre, the Olympic medallists – who are the only crew, other than the leaders, to have averaged 18 knots or more overnight!

GAES Centros Auditivos have had a steady night, now about 180 miles from Mapfre, hanging on to membership of The Five who left the Mediterranean together.

In tenth Renault ZE Sailing Team are the most offshore of the next group, 300 miles off, after routing west of the Canaries, gaining some 10 miles on their nearest rivals who are now Central Lechera Asturiana. Juan Merediz (ESP) and Fran Palacio (ESP) – the race’s ‘Benjamin’ at 27 years old – will be content with their night’s work having got themselves up from 13th to 11th.

Hugo Boss’ routing round Canary Islands has taken them close to the coasts of Tenerife, La Gomera and Hierro and they are now 655 miles behind the leader Virbac-Paprec 3.