The fleet racing in leg one of the Volvo Ocean Race is about to have its first taste of 'Life at the Extreme' as the crews prepare to ride a 40 knot westerly gale straight towards Cape Town.

Leaders Ericsson 4 (Torben Grael / BRA) has started to make her turn to the east, followed by the chasing pack of four, PUMA (Ken Read / USA), Green Dragon (Ian Walker / GBR) and Telefónica Black (Fernando Echávarri / ESP). But, while high winds are forecast, the fleet still has to negotiate a light patch of wind, before they can enjoy the sleigh ride east.

According to Volvo Ocean Race weather forecasters, the slow down should not last long, and, by the beginning of week three, there will be a series of strong lows moving east towards the Cape of Good Hope. But, although the fleet is gearing up for a quick ride to Cape Town, the predicted 40 knots of wind will be a big test for the Volvo 70s.

"In the old Volvo Ocean 60s, 40 knots would be towards the upper end of racing mode, but in these boats, 40 knots is a lot more like survival mode," wrote MCM Guy Salter from Ericsson 4 this morning. "It will be bumpy, wet and very uncomfortable, but hopefully fast," he adds.

Across the fleet, the crews are trying to get as much rest as possible, in anticipation of the gale yet to come. Cooking is going to be difficult, so topping up on freeze-dried food is a priority too. Everyone is triple checking their areas of responsibility and concentrating on the onslaught that lies ahead.

"We have been preparing for war since early morning," writes Mikel Pasabant from Telefónica Black. The team is expecting in excess of 40 knots, which for them is good news. "We will at last catch up with the winds which will take us closer to the finish line and be able to fight for the leading place," says Pasabant. From their position at the back of the leading group, they are beginning to experience a drop in wind, with big wind shifts.

Ian Walker / Green Dragon says the race is about to get 'interesting' as all the boats behind get the wind further north and cut the corner on the leaders. "The boats should aline north / south and it will look like a fairly equal dash for Cape Town," he says. Those that do not keep up with the pace will drop off the back of the system and lose hundreds of miles. "It's our job," says Ian, "not to let that happen to us."

The gales could see the fleet cover in excess of 500 nautical miles in a 24-hour period, which means looking for an average boat speed of around 24 knots. So far, it has taken the fleet three days to cover almost 900 nm south from the scoring gate at Fernando de Noronha.

Green Dragon's navigator, Ian Moore/IRL says, "The reward for this southerly dash is brewing just south of Cabo Frio, and hopefully will start ploughing east following the south side of the St Helena high, dragging the entire fleet with it."

"We will have to hold on tight and stay concentrated to keep the crew and equipment in one piece. We have a long a long trip in front of us," says Eivind Melleby from Ericsson 3 (Anders Lewander / SWE).

The distance between the top four boats is starting to spread. At 13:00 GMT today, Ericsson 4 led PUMA by one mile, but Green Dragon was 26nm behind the leader, and Telefónica Black 34 nm.

Telefónica Blue (Bouwe Bekking / NED) leads the second group which are now very strung out, all losing miles to the leader in the last three hours. Ericsson 3 has had the best average boat speed of 15.5 knots, but Team Russia (Andreas Hanakamp / AUT) has had the best 24 hour run of 372 nm. Delta Lloyd (Ger O'Rourke / IRL) in sixth place is still proving that his generation one boat is up to the mark and has been level pegging with the rest of the fleet in terms of boat speed, averaging 14.8 knots in the past three hours.

Leg 1 Day 16 - 13:00 GMT Volvo Ocean Race Positions
(boat name / country / skipper / nationality / distance to leader)

Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael / BRA) DTF 2958
PUMA Racing Team USA (Ken Read / USA) +1
Green Dragon IRL / CHN (Ian Walker / GBR) +26
Telefónica Black ESP (Fernando Echávarri / ESP) +34
Telefónica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking / NED) +39
Delta Lloyd IRL (Ger O'Rourke / IRL) +78
Ericsson 3 SWE (Anders Lewander / SWE) +81
Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp / AUT) +183

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.