Although the boats are going upwind as they head east from the Brazilian coast, they have had a relatively gentle first few hours at sea with light winds gradually building as they went into their first night.
Right now the north-easterly breeze is in the upper teens and the boats are making around 13 knots of boatspeed and there is little to choose between them in terms of the ranking.
Team Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag has the nominal lead by dint of being further north than the main pack, with Dongfeng in second place just over half a mile behind. The rest of the fleet is all within a mile of the red and white Chinese Volvo Ocean 65.
There is a long way to go with 16 days ahead on a leg which will test navigators as the crews negotiate the western fringes of the St Helena High, then through the Doldrums, the Azores High and then up the US eastern seaboard. Newport is now just under 5,000 nautical miles away…
Position report at 12h45 UTC:
1 - Team Brunel
2 - Turn The Tide of Plastic 0.1 nm from leader
3 - Dongfeng Race Team 0.4 nm
4 - Scallywag 0.8 nm
5 - Vestas 11th Hour 0.8 nm
6 - MAPFRE 0.9 nm
7 - AkzoNobel 1,8 nm
