Having emerged from the Southern Ocean unscathed, the Volvo Ocean Race fleet has moved into calmer warmer waters, giving all the crews a chance to catch up on their sleep.

With 1200nm of the fourth leg still to race before the finish in Rio, six of the eight boats could snatch victory as the watch over winds and currents up the South American coast becomes intense.

Hamble's Neal McDonald, skipper of Assa Abloy and the third-placed Team Tyco, with a clutch of Southampton's top sailors on board, are within sight of a podium place though both need to pull back miles over leaders illbruck to score maximum points.

Recovering from his dip in freezing three degree waters to remove kelp from the keel, which slowed the boat down, McDonald has steered a westerly course to gain fifth place, 117 miles behind illbruck. Their position up through the Brazilian currents could see the margin close between now and the scheduled finish on Tuesday, or even Monday if the predicted favourable winds kick in.

Tyco skipper Kevin Shoebridge, liaising with Southampton navigator Steve Hayles said it was too early to assess the success of their decision to stay west.

"Things are getting interesting as we close on Rio, with only 1350 miles togo and the fleet is still very close as far as distance to sail goes," he said.

"There is a big spread east to west with a 200-mile north-south divide between the fleet. Someone is right and someone will be wrong, but I imagine we are still a few days away from knowing the outcome."

On board Lisa McDonald's Amer Sports Too, lagging 517 nms behind the leaders, the thoughts yesterday turned to romance.

"These girls are some of the world's toughest female sailors who have just emerged from dodging icebergs at mock speeds in the depths of the Southern Ocean," Lisa said.

"Valentine's Day rolls around and one by one, as the emails from loved ones come in, they go soft as putty and for a brief moment collapse into a puddle of emotional mush. Only for a moment though, we've got boats to catch . . ."