At 09:15 GMT two more yachts joined the race course as Basque sailor Unai Basurko on Pakea and Graham Dalton's bright yellow Open 50, A Southern Man - AGD, left Bilbao and headed into the Bay of Biscay. With Sir Robin Knox-Johnston's imminent restart in the next few hours, the VELUX 5 OCEANS fleet will be back up to seven competitors. At the moment, American yachtsman, Tim Troy, has yet to decide on a start date for his Open 60, Margaret Anna.
Meanwhile, off the coast of Morocco, Bernard Stamm is 210 miles north-west of the Canary Islands making fractionally better speed on Cheminées Poujoulat than Japanese sailor, Kojiro Shiraishi. Spirit of Yukoh is passing over a shallow chain of banks north-east of Madeira and Koji is indextaining his grip on Stamm, allowing the Swiss skipper to extend his lead by only a handful of miles since this morning's poll. Earlier today, Koji spoke with the race organisation in high spirits as the seasickness that has exhausted him since the start of the race has passed: "I'm feeling good. The sickness is not bad now and yesterday I managed to eat some food. indexly Japanese food, rice and noodles."
Off the coast of Portugal, 449 miles behind Shiraishi, Mike Golding is picking up pace after his restart from La Coruna, Spain, yesterday. In a satellite phone call this morning, Golding was pragmatic about the 48 hours spent in-port to repair damage after the gale on Monday and Tuesday: "I probably needed the stop in all sorts of ways" the skipper of Ecover admitted, "but now I'm getting on with it. Bernard is not going to wait for me."
Just 40 miles north-east of Golding, Alex Thomson is realistic about the immediate prospects offshore: "I expect Mike to extend on me over the coming days as we are in the 'rich get richer' scenario, but with another low pressure system on its way, I hope to make some gains back." However, Thomson is relieved to be back in the race and heading away from land on Hugo Boss: "I feel free being out on the open ocean; no nets, no pots and fewer ships."
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