Six boats remain in the Challenge Mondial, but two are battling the seas better than the rest and have started their own strategic duel.

Bayer - skippered by Yvan Bourgnon - is the long-time leader, having seized the initiative by taking a more direct southerly approach towards the Azores.

But she lost a lot of time to second-placed Foncia overnight.

Under the guidance of captain Alain Gautier and navigator Ellen MacArthur, Foncia took advantage of high winds to cut her deficit from more than thirty nautical miles to less than seven.

"It has been a very interesting race so far strategically speaking," said Gautier on Tuesday.

"I wasn't surprised when Bayer got into the lead as Yvan Bourgnon and his crew made a very good choice to go south.

"That's what we had planned to do, but didn't succeed."

After making the first turn, Gautier thinks the race should be downwind all the way to the home turn at Gibraltar.

"That is good news for us," he said. "Ellen is doing the navigation and she is doing it very well."

Azores ahoy!

Third-placed Groupama, which has fallen back from the leading pair and is now almost 60 miles behind Bayer, is trying to shake off the relatively close attention of Belgacom, a further 20 miles back.

The four leading boats are due to reach the Azores during the night and will then start heading for Gibraltar which is 975 miles away.

Others have been less successful in their navigation of difficult seas and will have to wait for that milestone.

Gitana IX and Banque Populaire - which is being repaired and should resume late on Tuesday - are hundreds of miles off the pace.

And it is reported that the original boat design may have been modified - to its detriment - during construction.

One admittedly interested party is Foncia's Gautier, who said: "It will be necessary to draw conclusions from what happened at the end of the race.

"We will analyse every problem that occurred on each boat."

For now though, he is concentrating on the strategic duel at sea, adding: "When racing, we focus on what's ahead and not what has already happened."