The Chief Medical Advisor Dr Tim Spalding (orthopaedic consultant in Coventry , UK), Dr Mark Tomson (a family doctor/ sailing doctor from Hamble, UK) and the Medical Co-ordinator to the Volvo Ocean Race , Timo Malinen (Chiropractor from Hamble, UK)

Tense final moments in dying breeze

ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse) is leading the Volvo Ocean Race in the last push to the finish line in Gothenburg, Sweden, but the wind has dropped and they are sailing at less than one knot while the nearest boat, Pirates of the Caribbean (Paul Cayard) is closing and still managing five knots.  Cayard is now within a mile of the Dutch boat and Brasil 1 is only three miles behind her.  Both boats still have wind and therefore speed.

“It’s a nervous time here on ABN AMRO TWO,” wrote navigator Simon Fisher this morning.  “We are ghosting through the water at the head of the fleet and we are praying that we have enough breeze to carry us over the finish.”

The finish is only 17 miles away and the finish order is by no means certain.

LEG NINE DAY 03, 1000 GMT POSITION REPORT

ABN1              ABN AMRO ONE

ABN2              ABN AMRO TWO

BRA1              Brasil 1

AUS1              Brunel

ERIC               Ericsson Racing Team

POTC             Pirates of the Caribbean

DTLC: distance to leader change; the difference between the distance from the boat to the leader taken at the time of the last six hour poll, and the distance from the boat to the leader at the previous poll