Seeking Steady Wind A Tricky Situation

It hasn't been a straightforward start to leg 4 of The Ocean Race as the IMOCA teams zig-zag away from the coast of Brazil, seeking favourable conditions to the east, whilst keeping an eye on the overall goal of making miles north.

There's also big picture weather that dictates overall strategy to consider versus the very localised impact of clouds and squalls that must be deal with.

"There's just a lot of random 'cloudage' going on here,"...

The tension mounts as racing remains painfully close
Nobody can break free on final push towards a Sunday finish




Tension, exhaustion, and extreme emotional swings through elation and despair.

That's likely to be the mood on board Team Holcim-PRB and Team Malizia all the way to the finish now.

Despite racing hard for over 33 days and over 14,000 miles sailed over ground, neither Boris Herrmann's Malizia, nor Kevin Escoffier's Holcim-PRB...

Roaring towards Cape Town

The fleet has pushed south into the Roaring 40s and close to record-breaking speed runs...





It's been a productive and fast 24 hours for the IMOCA fleet in The Ocean Race as the teams are diving south towards an ice exclusion zone and into the Roaring 40s, named for the area south of 40-degrees latitude where low pressure systems circle the continent of Antarctica unimpeded by land masses.



...

With 20,000 miles and five months at sea, 70% of their voyage is complete.


The leading yachts are starting to show little signs of fatigue requiring constant maintenance, just as they are undertaking the most difficult part of the course. They had 1800 miles to run between the end of the exclusion zone and the Cape Horn but now a storm has changed all that. The window that had opened last week for Simon Curwen to reach Cape Horn before February 8 has now closed and a succession...

11th Hour Racing Team and Malizia win the weekend
The rankings have flipped over the weekend with 11th Hour Racing Team jumping into the lead







The American-flagged 11th Hour Racing Team pushed into the lead on leg 2 of The Ocean Race over the weekend.

Skipper Charlie Enright and his crew held their nerve over an early decision to take a westerly routing on the descent down the Atlantic and the choice paid dividends on Saturday...

Credit to GUYOT environnement - Team Europe who have regained the lead on the race tracker as well as their position as the most southerly boat in the fleet. In a race south, that's a good thing.... or is it?






Two of the three boats positioned about 120 miles to the west - Team Holcim-PRB and 11th Hour Racing - have just (as at 1200 UTC) put in a gybe to the west, consolidating position and setting up for a weather transition...