Girl Power

Once again the girls on Amer Sports Too have shown very good routing and sailing over the last few hours. They have chosen a similar strategy to SEB, letting the boat run on a more westerly course and pulling away from the guys nearby.

Right now they have only pulled three miles out of News Corp and four out of Amer Sports One. The real asset for them is the speed difference they are achieving, as they are one knot faster than News Corp and almost three knots faster than Amer Sports One. Djuice is suffering from very light wind and is left behind.

After being locked together with Tyco and ASSA ABLOY, illbruck managed to get away from the two yachts by eight miles. John Kostecki, illbruck’s skipper said in a satellite interview: “We have a few miles lead now and I hope it helps to get away. We sailed the boat really hard and we were playing the clouds better than the competition. Chris Bedford, our meteorologist trained everybody on board well, but Juan [Vila] had a big impact on this.” Noel Drennan will face King Neptune in a few hours, as it was dark when illbruck crossed the equator. John Kostecki expects the trade winds to set in soon to get a quick ride to Miami, 2750 nautical miles away.

Equator Crossing Times (GMT): illbruck 0132; Tyco 0138; ASSA ABLOY 0153; News Corp 0554; Amer Sports One 0820;

Volvo Ocean Race Position Report, Day 9, 1000 GMT