A rude awakening greeted the fleet after such perfect conditions at the start in La Rochelle. As they headed out into the notorious unruly waters of the Bay of Biscay swelling seas and 40 knots of breeze on the nose provided for a rough ride. Matt Humphries, watch leader on News Corp wrote : "What a battle ... the fleet within a few miles of each other rounding the notorious Ushant, travelling at 20 knots in 30 knots of wind blowing from the west. We have had a tight race since the start and we are soaking wet after a slog to this left hand corner. Very unpleasant conditions have resulted in some of the crew spending time on the white telephone to god. We look forward to a scrap with the fleet as we fight our way down the English Channel."

"As first nights go, that was not a pleasant one," wrote Team Tyco navigator Steve Hayles. "At about 2300 local time (2100 GMT) the front hit the fleet giving us winds of 40 knots and a big seaway which we will be glad to see the back of. The options have remained slim and the fleet is in close proximity to a mark off the Raz de Sein."

Skipper on djuice, Knut Frostad, also reported of a tough first night, but said their main focus is to push hard to avoid falling too far behind when the front-runners reach the strong currents and gnarly waves around the northwest tip of France. "Fetching is not our strong side - but it’s only going to last another eight hours - thank god."

In the fetching conditions along the French coast djuice’s skipper Knut Frostad reported that they still suffer on boat speed. ASSA ABLOY has overtaken them during the night after problems at the starting line. "ASSA ABLOY passed us earlier this night on pure speed with less people on deck, looking quite relaxed. We can only remind ourselves that we would have been further back if we hadn’t pushed so hard. We only have two or three guys down below at a time ; the bunks are filled with spinnakers. We are just stacked to the limits."

Crewmembers onboard ASSA ABLOY recovered well from their incident on the start line yesterday when they managed to snag the underwater holding line on the start buoy around their keel. At the gun, with the wind perpendicular to the course, ASSA ABLOY got caught in the line of the leeward starting mark with full speed. It took the frustrated sailors at least eight minutes to get going again while dragging the mark. First bowman Jason Carrington took his foul weather gear off and jumped in the cold water to free the rudder of the line.

At that moment the boat was head to wind doing maybe two to three knots. But the line was caught around the keel bulb instead of the rudder. Quickly Richard Mason jumped in. The young New Zealander disappeared underwater and decided to swim to the trailing mark and cut the anchor line off the mark. With all onboard again the boat was accelerating. To make things even more dramatic for the crew of ASSA ABLOY, they had to execute a 360-degree penalty turn for hitting the mark or any part of it.

Even with their eight-minute deficit they have managed to pick their way back through the fleet and are currently in fifth position, neck and neck with Team Tyco. There is no doubt that skipper Neal McDonald will have his sights firmly set on overall race leaders illbruck - a mere one mile ahead.

ASSA ABLOY’s skipper Neal McDonald is realistic about the team’s chances to beat illbruck. "We sailed well but they are a hard act to beat. They sailed an almost faultless race. Sure they do make mistakes, but they are smaller than the competition’s. But they must feel the pressure, have the same meetings as we do and discuss what can happen and what they need to do. In a way, the only thing we can do is to let them make the mistakes while we sail a faultless race."

After leaving Sydney the ASSA ABLOY team has outperformed the German team by one point in the last five legs. Race Statistics also show that illbruck is not the strongest team in the more inshore legs. In legs three, five and six ASSA ABLOY collected 22 points versus 17 points for the German team.

Amer Sports One was the first yacht that passed Ushant and immediately sped up when the spinnaker went up. As the other yachts were still slower on the tighter reach, the gap widened to three miles. Illbruck has overtaken News Corp, but still the first six yachts are within five miles of each other and the smallest mistake can cost a top position on this leg. Amer Sports Too’s distance to the leader has increased to 27 miles. The tide is pushing all the yachts into the English Channel.

This favourable sailing conditions will stay with the fleet for the next days, pushing the ETA to May 30. Just when rounding the north coast of Denmark, the conditions could become lighter.