It was the night from hell for the Volvo Ocean Race fleet, as the cold front swept over the fleet, and one by one, the eight boats were left with huge seas and vicious squalls.

While Ericsson 4 (Torben Grael / BRA) rode the front, extended their lead to 76 nm from PUMA (Ken Read / USA) and broke through the magical 600 nautical mile barrier, claiming yet another 24-hour world record, Telefónica Black (Fernando Echávarri / ESP) lost a rudder, wiped off their bowsprit and damaged one of their daggerboards, cutting away the spinnaker in the process.

"It's not every day you get to have a ride as we have had over the past day or so, and to get a new 24-hour record has been superb, but the reality of that feat out here hasn't really sunk in," wrote Ericsson 4 MCM Guy Salter this morning.

But it was a different story on Green Dragon (Ian Walker / GBR), who has slipped down the leader board.

"I don't really know where to start as the last 24-hours has been so incident-packed," wrote Ian Walker, whose Green Dragon hit something hard in the pitch dark.

"There was deafening crunch and the boat went from 25 knots to a virtual standstill. Neal McDonald / GBR, who was helming, smashed the wheel and everyone else fell over," he said. The crew inspected the hull, foils and keel for damage and report that all seems fine, apart from a huge vibration which later cleared itself.

As daylight broke, and the crew were tiring, Green Dragon buried her bow so hard that the A6 spinnaker came back and stove in the pulpit and forward stanchions before ripping to pieces. "The Green Dragon is wounded, but far from slain," wrote Walker this morning. The team is in fourth place, but 266 nm adrift from the leaders.

Telefónica Blue (Bouwe Bekking / NED), in fifth place, reported 40 knots of wind, lots rain and big gusts as the front rolled over them. "The last 24-hours we have been hanging in, not only sailing-wise, but you can see that less sleep is taking its toll," he said.

After the close racing of the previous two weeks, the last two days of wild sailing has caused the fleet to spread out, with 458 nm separating first to last.

Green Dragon and Telefónica Blue have both taken a dive south, while Ericsson 4 leads PUMA and Ericsson 3 (Anders Lewander / SWE) in the north. Team Russia (Andreas Hanakamp / AUT) in seventh, and Delta Lloyd (Ger O'Rourke / NED) in eighth, are also to the south, while the wounded Telefónica Black limps, with an emergency rudder, midway between the split of the fleet.

With 1,122 nm still to run to the finish for Ericsson 4, computers are predicting a Sunday mid-morning arrival for her, but there are still challenges to be faced in the approach to Cape Town and the end of this epic 6,500 nm opening leg.

Race weather forecaster, Jennifer Lilly, says that winds will ease to the mid 20s today, the late teens tomorrow and finally fall to around 10 knots over the weekend. She says that without a doubt the fleet is expected to slow as they approach Cape Town, but it looks possible that the leaders will slow more than the followers.

"The question on everyone's minds will be: how much can the trailing teams gain," she says.

Leg One Day 20 - 13:00 GMT Volvo Ocean Race Positions
(boat name / country / skipper / nationality / distance to leader)

Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael / BRA) DTF 1122
PUMA Racing Team USA (Ken Read / USA) +76
Ericsson 3 SWE (Anders Lewander / SWE) +163
Green Dragon IRL / CHN (Ian Walker / GBR) +266
Telefónica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking / NED) +345
Telefónica Black ESP (Fernando Echávarri / ESP) +430
Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp / AUT) +454
Delta Lloyd IRL (Ger O'Rourke / IRL) +458

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.