The fleet had a slow night, gybing south from Cabo Verde

It's been a tense first night as the IMOCA fleet has sailed south, away from Mindelo and towards the uncertainty of the Doldrums.

It was an exciting start, despite the light conditions, with close quarters action as the fleet leaves Cabo Verde en route to Cape Town.

Paul Meilhat's Biotherm is in the lead on Thursday morning, and along with Team Holcim-PRB and 11th Hour Racing Team, is gybing west away from Sao Filipe.

Further behind, Team Malizia is chasing hard, while GUYOT environnement - Team Europe, has fallen slightly further back, after leading the fleet around the starting race course.

"This is VMG (velocity made good) racing downwind between the islands," said Paul Meilhat heading into the night. "We made the choice to use the spinnaker off the start and it's worked well because we are in front of the others."

Leg Two Rankings at 1100 UTC - 26 January 2023

1. Biotherm, distance to finish, 4672.4 miles
2. Team Holcim-PRB, distance to leader, 1.4 miles
3. 11th Hour Racing Team, distance to leader, 5.3 miles
4. Team Malizia, distance to leader, 9.6 miles
5. GUYOT environnement - Team Europe, distance to leader, 27.6 miles

Image: Onboard 11th Hour Racing Team during the start of Leg 2 from Sao Vicente, Cabo Verde, to Cape Town, South Africa.
© Amory Ross / 11th Hour Racing / The Ocean Race