JAMAICA expected to arrive midnight Wednesday.

They're coming home, they're coming home, JAMAICA's coming home ....

The first of the Clipper 07-08 teams are expected in Port Antonio, Jamaica, just before midnight tonight local time (0500 GMT) at the end of the 590-mile sprint from Colon, Panama.

And at 13:00 local time (19:00 in the UK) JAMAICA were sitting in 8th place but only 13 miles off the lead, and with just 70 miles to go, as can be seen from the race viewer above, all of the top 8 yachts could be in with the chance of a podium finish.

JAMAICA skipper, Simon Bradley, says :

“Just losing a single mile against the rest of the fleet can change your standing by several places as we’re so close together. It’s great to see the other yachts, it really keeps everybody on their toes! We’re racing hard to Jamaica, looking for our first podium of the race. We had a fantastic Le Mans start fighting for position with the rest of the fleet. We’ve sailed through several heavy squalls and are now making good speed to the finish where we know there’ll be a huge welcome from friends, family & our Jamaican supporters.

One Love!”

All of the teams have been making very fast progress towards Jamaica in the moderate F5 easterly wind, however Nova Scotia and westernaustralia2011.com were trapped for several hours in their own personal wind holes and now lag behind the pack.

The current good winds will continue until the teams reach the eastern corner of Jamaica and then the final 30nm to the finish will be light and fickle and we will see lots of position changes on the finishing straights.

The first of the yachts is expected between 2200 and midnight local time (0300 and 0500 GMT) with the rest of the fleet arriving through the night.

The JAMAICA crew members and their family and friends are in Port Antonio and will be staying up through the night to give team JAMAICA a hero's welcome when they arrive. They have been preparing themselves both mentally and physically for the task ahead and were guests of honour at a reception at the Mocking Bird Hill reception last night where local Jamaica Tourist Board representative Polly was presented with a RNLI / JAMAICA Clipper pennant by Dan Garnett of JAMAICA Clipper who is also a RNLI volunteer as a thanks you for all of their help and support during their stay in Port Antonio. Crew member Nick Jacobs was invited to join a local Reggae band who provided the entertainment for the evening.

With the crew are Barbara and Shireen, owners of the Mocking Bird Hill, who kindly hosted the cocktail reception.