0630 UTC: It's another typical day in Malé - hot, humid and with little wind. The six boats have started to dock out ahead of the 0800 UTC race start. After a couple of weeks of interrupted scheduling, the sailors are all chomping at the bit to get racing again. All teams apart from Sanya have their mainsails up. PUMA Ocean Racing and Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing are testing headsails in the light breeze.
0652: The start line is being laid. The fleet will have to head south first of all from the west coast of Male before turning left under the island. Likely to be a port-tack start.
0703: The pressure's on for Team Sanya as they prepare to sail into their home port - but they're busting to get back to racing. "I don't think I have ever been so amped up to get back out and go racing," skipper Mike Sanderson said. "We owe it to you all that are reading this and we owe it to ourselves to go and have a decent leg and get this show back on the right track."
0707: Clouds hovering over the race course are starting to clear. Any hopes of solid breeze for the start are fading fast. Team Sanya's mainsai now up.
30 minutes to go ... the boats are at the startline
@Terrafirma No, there will be no live video of the start out in Malé. There will be calls from all the boats as we get away, however.
The start line has been laid, with Race Director Jack Lloyd's committee boat at the eastern end and a small island off Malé to the west. The start line is likely to suffer from a wind shadow - so could be crucial to getting clear of the islands
All boats lining up on the startline except Groupama. It's looking light on the start but there's a wind band a few hundred metres away.
Weather update from race meteorologist Gonzalo Infante: Wind will be 8-10 knots from the east. Fleet will be on port tack sailing in flat water for the first few hours. First obstacle will be to set up their course to avoid the wind shadow from the island of Sri Lanka over next 24 hours.
Ten minutes to go, boats lining up now. Easterly breeze blowing now, around seven knots
Hey Commodore!
Fleet having to dodge loads of water traffic as they jostle for startline positions
Five minutes to go - only CAMPER have their headsail
up
Looks like teams are setting up to use their Code Zero headsails. These are the biggest foresails they have for maximum power in light winds
All teams behind the line now, gearing up for start as three minutes counts down
