VOLVO OCEAN RACE • Leg 5 : Paul Cayard and The Black Pearl take third place on the podium behind Bekking and Sanderson

April 18 : After the three podium places for leg five were taken earlier today by ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson), movistar (Bouwe Bekking) and Pirates of the Caribbean (Paul Cayard), the final three boats finished in quick succession.

Brasil 1 (Torben Grael) held off Ericsson Racing Team (John Kostecki) to take fourth place by whisker, finishing 12 minutes ahead of the Swedish boat, while ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse) brought up the rear in sixth position, finishing just under an hour later.

“The last 24 hours were terrible,” said skipper of Brasil 1, Torben Grael. “Everyone is really exhausted. We were all working on deck for the whole day and didn’t have a minute to rest, always checking where the other boats were. This result is good for the team’s morale. We fought for so long for this fourth place and winning it is a confidence boost for the next legs,” he said.

Leg five has seen a shake up on the overall leaderboard. Although ABN AMRO ONE has an advantage of 22 points as the team stretched their lead to 62.5, movistar now moves up from fourth place overall to second, with 40.5 points, and ABN AMRO TWO drops down a place to third. Pirates of the Caribbean exchanges third overall for fourth but the bottom of the leaderboard is unaffected and Brasil 1 and Ericsson maintain their fifth and sixth places.

Although ABN AMRO ONE has a strong advantage in the top spot, the race for second place is very open and there is everything to play for in the next in-port race scheduled to be held in Baltimore on April 29.

• The Pirates of the Caribbean invaded Baltimore, Maryland today at 1122 GMT (0722 local time) finishing third on leg five of the Volvo Ocean Race after 15 days, 19 hours and 12 minutes at sea.

Paul Cayard, the Captain of The Black Pearl happily reported minutes after his team finished, “This result is tough to get use to, we are all very competitive and we all want really want to win. On the whole, we are happy with third, we are still on the podium.”

Pirates of the Caribbean fought fiercely throughout leg five to be first into their home country and began the leg in style by leading the Volvo Ocean Race fleet out of Rio de Janeiro. By day two they had fallen back to second but were chasing ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson) down hard, close on their heels.

After a brief spell in fifth, The Black Pearl managed to avoid a few more rain clouds than the rest of the fleet and moved into second again behind movistar (Bouwe Bekking). They held this position for three days with the southeasterly trades finally giving them the chance to increase their speed. Second was theirs until the night of the fifth day out at sea, when ABN AMRO ONE powered over them en route to the scoring gate at Fernando de Noronha.

By day six, The Black Pearl had passed through the scoring gate collecting two and a half points for third place but Ericsson Racing Team was only seven nautical miles behind them.

Cayard’s nightmare came true on the night of day eight when Brasil 1 (Torben Grael) crept up, snatched third and carried on extending her lead until the wind lifted, giving Cayard and his team a chance. This wind shift allowed the team to hoist a different spinnaker, which was faster and retook third on the afternoon of the tenth day at sea and the Pirates never looked back.

• Bouwe Bekking takes second place in Baltimore

Bouwe Bekking (NED) and his team racing the Spanish entry, movistar, finished leg five of the Volvo Ocean Race today in Baltimore, USA, at 00:14:15 GMT (1814 local time) in Baltimore.

After 15 days, 8 hours, 4 minutes and 15 seconds at sea. movistar finished in a solid second position, proving that their win on in leg three from Melbourne to Wellington was no fluke and they are, indeed, a team to be reckoned with, as always anticipated.

“I am very, very happy with our result,” said Bouwe Bekking. “Second is a good result for us, especially finishing in front of the Pirates. We only have to wait until ABN AMRO TWO finishes to find out if we have moved up into second place overall. On the whole, I am extremely happy.

“In general the boat was very fast in light winds, medium in medium winds and fast again in the bigger breezes. Over the next few days we will do a normal recovery and fitness programme and thoroughly check over the boat.”

The six points they score for this leg, added to the 3.5 bonus points they earned for passing the scoring gate at Fernando de Noronha in first position, brings their total to 40.5 points, half a point clear of ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse) who, if they finish the leg in their current position, will be in third place overall.

Prior to the start of the Volvo Ocean Race from Vigo in Spain last November, movistar had always been considered a contender for the overall victory in the event, but, after leg one when the team was forced to retire with serious damage to the boat and a last place finish on leg four when the boat suddenly started to take on water as the team led the fleet towards Cape Horn, movistar has had some catching up to do.

Much of the stopover in Rio de Janeiro was spent doing essential work on the boat after she limped into port a week later than the leading boat, leaving the crew little time to tune the boat up for the in-port race, a week before the start of leg five. Movistar bounced back to post a second place in the Rio inshore race and today’s finish position has been a result of determined effort on the leg by the crew who pushed the boat every inch of the way.

• LEG FIVE results