Angus Fuller reports on another week of conflicting fortunes in the BT Global Challenge round-the-world yacht race.

THE last week of racing has seen a mixture of celebration and commiseration onboard TeamSpirIT.

We have spent the best part of the last two weeks in the first four of the fleet and gradually hauled our way up into first place last weekend for the first time during the race.

The rain and spray were lashing across the deck making any work hard and cold necessitating for the rota system of 30 minutes on deck and 30 below to be instigated. Still, the crew worked hard trimming and helming, and by day-break the schedule showed us to have a one mile lead over the yellow Isle of Man boat, just off our starboard quarter.

Morale on the boat was high with many party hats and party horns being blown. One of the problems was to keep the guys focussed on moving the boat as fast as possible in the then dying breeze to maintain our lead.

Our navigator had been tracking a low pressure moving towards us for some days and unfortunately we ended up parking ourselves in the eye of it rather than passing to the south as had been planned.

This resulted in both us and Isle of Man having winds of four knots for 12 hours moving only 48nm in that time. By the time the evening schedule came through we had dropped back to fifth place, now 53nm behind the leader LG Flatron!

The mood could not have been more of a contrast to that of 12 hours previously but, encouragingly, there were no negative attitudes or comments on board. This is the price that is paid for such close racing; one mistake and you pay dearly for it. I know I keep mentioning it but the fleet is still so very close - less than 50nm between first and sixth place - truly amazing after 30 days at sea and 5,000nm.

With just 1,000nm to go to the finish, the race is far from decided. A large high pressure system, which has been centred over New Zealand for five days now, is at present giving very light winds on the approaches to Wellington.

With strong winds at the back end of the fleet and light winds for the leaders, the fleet is likely to bunch up just 500nm from the finish line and the race could well start again here. These light winds will be a test of nerves, skill and management as to who finishes where in the fleet.