At dawn, Italian skipper Simone Bianchetti on Tiscali held the lead as the boat furthest inshore : "I am so happy that the wind did not die on me last night, and everything is really going well on the boat, I have no problems and am able to push hard this time." Thierry Dubois on Solidaires has opted to stay further offshore and so has dropped back in the latest positions according to the DTF, however, he is the fastest boat in the class at 12.12 knots and clearly is going for better boatspeed over heading. With these two boats on either side, current leg leader Bernard Stamm seems to be displaying his usual tactic of ’if you push, I push harder’, as Bobst Group - Armor Lux yo-yo’s back up to first place every other position report.

Dubois has for once no complaints : "Thanks to stable wind conditions since the start, I have only had to tweak the sails and not do any major manoeuvres - which is good, because in the heat I can hardly move without sweating !" On the other hand, 4th placed Emma Richards on Pindar is having to work a lot harder to keep American Bruce Schwab in her sights as he outmanoeuvres her on his narrower Open 60 into 3rd place : "The wind has been shifting 50 degrees regularly and from 6-18kts under some of the clouds. It makes for interesting sailing but highly frustrating when it doesn’t go your way. I have been sailing right next to Ocean Planet all day and night and in the last couple of clouds he has just sailed away from me."

In Class 2, current leader Brad Van Liew on Tommy Hilfiger Freedom America is hoping to round the ’bulge’ of Brazil on one tack, and 38 miles behind Tim Kent on Everest Horizontal is finding that the boatspeeds are dropping : "As the sun rises higher today, the winds become lighter. During the night I was able to maintain my course up the coast with eased sheets and the genoa, but daylight brought with it enough of a windshift to put me back hard on the wind, and back to the smaller, flatter solent."

Literally shocking news is just in from Alan Paris as his Open 40 BTC Velocity collided with two whales as 7.5 knots boatspeed : "The boat came to an abrupt stop, I got up from the Nav station and again the boat was shaken by the whale moving away, I fell against the nav station on my ribs, but am OK. There was much blood in the water and I clearly saw 2 whales on the port side. One then followed me as BTC Velocity started moving again, but luckily did not attack the boat." Thankfully, no visible damage has occurred, although Alan will check this thoroughly. Paris lies 12 miles behind Kojiro Shiraishi on Spirit of yukoh, and the Japanese skipper is finally over his perpetual seasickness : "My boat has a lot of negative ion so that seems to be the reason I have no seasickness !" He is hoping that his light carbon mainsail, which he used in Leg 2 will last until the finish, although he says it is not so effective when close-hauled.

Derek Hatfield on Spirit of Canada has just cleared the top tip of the Falkland Islands and Salvador is just under 2500 miles away. "The conditions are a little light right now as a high pressure system moves over the area from west to east. I had a long busy night negotiating through the huge fishing fleet that is just outside the entrance to Stanley Harbor. I am starting to feel good about the boat again and it’s great to be back racing and making the boat go fast. With the new rig and sails, the boat’s performance is right up there where it should be."

POSITIONS AT 1400GMT 15th APRIL 2003

Class 1
 Boat Lat Lon AvgBsp AvgHeading DTF
 1. Bobst Group-Armor Lux 7 23.520 S, 34 04.040 W, 94.80 nm, 11.85 kt, 8 °T, 3590.78 nm
 2. Tiscali 7 30.920 S, 34 19.840 W, 85.17 nm, 10.65 kt, 12 °T, 3596.56 nm
 3. Ocean Planet 7 57.076 S, 34 05.072 W, 84.92 nm, 10.62 kt, 20 °T, 3623.91 nm
 4. Pindar 8 06.084 S, 33 57.012 W, 84.94 nm, 10.62 kt, 26 °T, 3633.91 nm
 5. Solidaires 7 54.044 S, 33 09.800 W, 96.91 nm, 12.12 kt, 41 °T, 3634.42 nm

Class 2
 Boat Lat Lon AvgBsp AvgHeading DTF
 1. Tommy Hilfiger 8 08.800 S, 34 19.120 W, 75.68 nm, 9.46 kt, 14 °T, 3634.42 nm
 2. Everest Horizontal 8 47.250 S, 34 25.650 W, 74.79 nm, 9.34 kt, 26 °T, 3672.64 nm
 3. Spirit of yukoh 9 41.323 S, 34 36.109 W, 66.89 nm, 8.35 kt, 48 °T, 3726.74 nm
 4. BTC Velocity 9 52.360 S, 34 52.480 W, 57.06 nm, 7.14 kt, 46 °T, 3738.48 nm

• Spirit of Canada (Leg 4) at 13:00 GMT - 551 49.08S, 57 25.92W 

Overall Results in Points / Total Elapsed Time after 4 Legs

Class 1
 1 Bobst Group-Armor Lux - 39pts / 97 days 23 hrs 7 mins 13 secs
 2 Solidaires - 37pts / 98 days 9 hrs 57 mins 47 secs
 3 Pindar - 27pts / 110 days 16 hrs 30 mins 23 secs
 4 Tiscali - 26pts / 140 days 0 hrs 51 mins 41 secs
 5 Ocean Planet - 23pts / 138 days 19 hrs 5 mins 45 secs

Class 2
 1 Tommy Hilfiger Freedom America - 40pts / 128 days 0 hrs 0 mins 54 secs
 2 Everest Horizontal - 35 pts / 148 days 0 hrs 15 mins 41 secs
 3 *Spirit of Canada - 25 pts / 174 days 6hrs 47 mins 44 secs
 4 Spirit of yukoh - 28 pts / 155 days 23 hrs 24 mins 44 secs
 5 BTC Velocity - 23 pts / 174 days 6 hrs 47 mins 44 secs