Fundació Navegació Oceànica Barcelona

The race leaders have had breeze of 20 to 30 knots to the west of Maracaibo, an added thrill for the match race taking place between the entries, with an added defensive factor consisting in avoiding any damage to the boat at all costs, as a fault at this point may prove fatal for the aspirations of either entry.

Safran andGroupe Bel are sailing just five hours apart and the gybes the boats have been doing since yesterday along the Venezuelan coast will probably be the most calculated and thought through that Guillemot, De Pavant and crews have performed in their entire offshore careers.

At 10:00 GMT today, Safran was 529 miles from the finish, with Groupe Bel 66 miles behind them. Their ETA at Puerto Limon is tomorrow evening at 21:20 GMT; however, the lulls lulling just a few miles from the Puerto Limon finish may delay the grand finale and may even allow Groupe Bel to gybe in closer to the leaders, taking advantage of the 'accordion' effect produced by lulls on the course.

On Mike Golding Yacht Racing, with Spaniard Bubi Sansó and Mike Golding himself, things are going smoothly. Provided there are no unwelcome surprises the Spanish-British duo has the thrid spot on the podium in the bag. Whilst the team can't expect to do any better at this point in the rankings, they also can't do any worse, as closest rival Foncia is some 150 miles away. 

1876 is still holding on to their precarious fifth place by a thread. The skippers are sailing in a similar situation to yesterday, hoping to be close to the trades by now. The next few hours will be crucial for Pachi Rivero and Yves Parlier, who are still holding an advantage of 100 miles on W Hotels with Alex Pella and Pepe Ribes on board. During the night, Alex and Pepe held a long tack south, that allowed them to increse the gap with Veolia Environnement and Aviva. The Spanish entry will need to decide today how it will pass the Antilles. To the north of the island of Grenada there are lots of other smaller islands to contend with, but forecasts indicate that there is more breeze in that area.

Tomorrow at this time, W Hotels will be in the Caribbean Sea, and everything will be much clearer. We will also find out if 1876 enters the same sea, putting Puerto Rico to the east or to the west.