Team Sanya made a break from the fleet overnight heading north towards the ice exclusion zone in search of wind as Abu Dhabi led the fleet into the final 1,800 nautical miles of Leg 7.
Around 140 miles north-west of leg leaders Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing at 0700 UTC, sixth-placed Sanya decided to try something different in the race to hook into the strong westerly winds lying ahead that will propel the fleet towards Lisbon.
“Although we have more miles to sail, and it probably looks like quite a bit on the tracker, our navigator and skipper, Aksel (Magdahl) and Mike (Sanderson) have a plan and only time will tell,” Sanya’s media crewmember Andrés Soriano said.
At 0400 Abu Dhabi led by 31 miles over PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG with CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand 20 miles further back.
Ian Walker's team were also the fastest in the fleet averaging 13.5 knots, more than four knots faster than any other crew,
As the on-the-water game of snakes and ladders continued, CAMPER media crew member Hamish Hooper said he was praying for the arrival of wind to set his team back on the fast road to the Leg 7 finish as they saw their speeds drop to five knots.
“It has been like one of those dreams you have when you are running as hard and fast as you can after something, but it’s like running in mud,” he said.
“The only hard and fast running we want to be doing is direct towards Lisbon with plenty of downwind speed.
“Apparently it is coming, once this big ‘H’ moves over us and a big ‘L’ comes down with plenty of wind.”
At 0700 fourth-placed Groupama trailed the leaders by 60 miles, with Telefónica a further three miles behind them.
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