Catch Me If You Can: Six Boats Chase Dee Caffari's Team

Continues to lead the fleet on the sixth day of the eighth stage: Team Turn the Tide on Plastic

The most easterly position in the fleet brought Dee Caffari's team Turn the Tide on Plastic into the lead on the current course to the north two days ago. Now the young 50:50 mixed team has to defend the lead. The hunters have made up nautical mile after nautical miles in the past few hours. But on Saturday morning, Caffari's team was still around seven nautical miles ahead of Charlie Enright's Vestas 11th Hour Racing team and almost 17 nautical miles ahead of Charles Caudrelier's Dongfeng Race Team.

Daryl Wislang shows who is behind the wheel for the Dongfeng Race Team: Skipper Charles Caudrelier

A bird tries to land on the top of the mast of the red Dongfeng boat

Helmswoman and trimmer in the Dongfeng Race Team and one of the protagonists we are introducing in the current issue of YACHT: Carolijn Brouwer

With the meanwhile fastest speed of up to 19 knots, Xabí Fernandez Team fought in 6th place behind Team Brunel and AkzoNobel, 50 nautical miles behind, to reconnect with the leading group. As the slowest boat with a speed of around 15 knots, David Witt's team Sun Hung Kai / Scallywag had to make up almost 80 nautical miles. A few hours before the drive past Recife and Natal at the easternmost tip of South America, the teams are still struggling with difficult to predict cloud activities, competing in a speed race in moderate winds of 11 knots.

Snapshot of the AkzoNobel team with skipper Simeon Tienpont (left)

Sun Hung Kai / Scallywags Navigator Libby Greenhalgh at the grinder

Annemieke "Bessie" Bes at the wheel for David Witt's team Sun Hugn Kai / Scallywag

"The team is currently in the lead. They have worked hard to get 100 percent out of the boat consistently. With every new cloud, sails have to be changed. In the past 24 hours there have been too many to count. Sometimes they were between two You can change sails in just 20 minutes, "reported turn-the-tide-on-plastic-on-board reporter James Blake the day before. "That means," says Blake, "that the off-duty crew no longer has a full recovery phase. Morale is high on board. The team likes to accelerate. They always intended to occupy the most easterly position in the fleet and that seems to be Now paying off. There is still a long way to go, but this young team will have a chance to fight for a podium if they can maintain the momentum."

The Italian FrancescClapcich said: "We are leading! That is fantastic! We are sailing a really solid stage. We just have to go on like this for two more weeks." The 49erFX world champion and crossfit trainer sails around the world for the first time. The heroine of her youth: Dee Caffari. Now Clapcich is part of the youngest team in the fleet, led by Caffari. She fights and lives her dream in the only team that competes with five women and five men.