VOR: Challenging weather

Day 9 and the racing must go on. The fleet continues to spread out, with the leaders breaking the 1,000 nautical mile mark in southwesterly winds that continue to push the fleet towards the finish. With the stronger winds over the last 48 hours, the miles are disappearing and it looks like the leader will be approaching the Lizard sometime Saturday evening.
As of late Thursday night, all the teams were north of the rhumb line in fresh west-southwesterly winds. The leading teams, ABN AMRO ONE and Ericsson were in stronger winds, with sustained breeze around 30 knots and stronger gusts.