Gibraltar this afternoon

8.8 mile lead to Hugo Boss in the Barcelona World Race

Although speeds through the night have been lower – making just 65-70 miles through the night between the 1900 and 0500 scheds - the leaders of the Barcelona World Race are still comfortably on schedule to set a new record for the 538 miles passage from Barcelona to Gibraltar.

At 0600 UTC Alex Thomson and Pepe Ribes on Hugo Boss are around 100 miles east of Gibraltar making 7-8 knots as they slide downwind in the light easterly breeze of the western Alboran Sea. They are expected to be off Gibraltar at 1430-1530 this afternoon.

The rhythm may not exactly be fast and furious, but the competition remains intense for the crews, who have had very very little sleep, gybing downwind in the best of the breeze approximately every hour or so. Hugo Boss has extended slightly on her closest pursuers, Bernard Stamm and Jean Le Cam on Cheminées Poujoulat and at the early morning ranking is 8.8 miles ahead. The Swiss-French duo appear to have had one particularly slow period during the night.

GAES Centros Auditivos' Anna Corbella and Gérard Marin continue to punch above their weight and are taking a more southerly route, towards the Algerian and Moroccan coast where there can be some better breeze, but there is more contrary current on this side so this could be a higher risk option. Meantime they have seen third place slip to Neutrogena. Guillermo Altadill and Jose Muñoz are following a similar track to Hugo Boss and Cheminees Poujoulat, and have had a good night with solid average speeds.

Meanwhile Renault Captur, sailed by Jörg Riechers and Sébastien Audigane, seems to have broken south too, holding fifth place, 50 miles behind the leader.

Image courtesy of Expedition and PredictWind

Weather files suggest that the favourable easterly breeze should build from 10-15 knots in the west of the Alboran Sea to as much as 30 knots as the boats accelerate down the Strait of Gibraltar late this afternoon and into the evening.

The boats placed sixth to eighth are developing their 'race within the race' with Didac Costa and Alex Gelabeirt on One Planet One Ocean Pharmaton in sixth, heading slowly southwest towards the Algerian coast, while in 7th the Garcia brothers have a solid middle ground choice on We Are Water. Backmarkers Nandor Fa and Conrad Colman remain north on Spirit of Hungary, but there is just 20 miles in terms of DTF between the three who are really in the grip of the light winds which see them slowed to less than three knots, unfortunately increasing their split away from the five boats in front.