We have done reasonably well in the last 24 hours and slowly been closing in on the boats nearest to us. That is giving us a big boost for our moral, which of course had suffered a little set back, better said it was like getting a right hand hook of a boxer.

We did lots of sail changes and just trying to press anything out of the boat. Sifi (navigator Simon Fisher) and I are spending heaps of time behind the computer and looking into all the options. We don't want to do anything crazy. Once you are behind, you are tempted to take bigger risks, but we are happy with any small cookie we can get.

In the last report the ruskies were only 12 miles ahead of us, and now we can clearly see them, makes me wonder if they blew out their big masthead spinnaker on the first night out, as the rate we are closing in on them is too fast.

In the meantime Gabry (Gabriele Olivo), our media man, is tearing his hair out, since there is software problem for zipping up the video footage to be sent, which of course is not motivating for him. Hopefully he will win that battle, not only for him, but so that the public can follow our progress. One thing for sure he will win the golden pillow award, as once the sun goes down, there is nothing to do for him than to go to his bunk, and stretch his back. For sure it would never be a job for me.

Cheers,

Bouwe (Bouwe Bekking - skipper).

Visit www.volvooceanrace.org for all the latest news!

The Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09 will be the 10th running of this ocean marathon. Starting from Alicante in Spain, on 4 October 2008 with in-port racing, it will, for the first time, take in Cochin, India, Singapore and Qingdao, China before finishing in St Petersburg, Russia for the first time in the history of the race.

Spanning some 37,000 nautical miles, stopping at 11 ports and taking nine months to complete, the Volvo Ocean Race is the world's premier yacht race for professional racing crews.